They may not be considered among the “outer areas” of the city anymore, but that does not mean that they are free of problems. For areas, especially interior ones, in the Assembly constituencies of Mahadevapura, K.R. Puram and C.V. Raman Nagar, development is a matter of “so near, yet so far”.
For instance, for residents of A. Narayanapura, it is a weekly date with empty pots, drums and anything they can find to fill water in. “We don’t have sumps to store water in. Water supply is once every week and we need to collect as much as we can to last another week,” said 76-year-old Krishnappa.
But they are not complaining. “We got piped water supply two years ago. Before that, we had to carry pots on our cycles, travelling to any apartment with a borewell willing to sell us water for Rs. 2 per pot,” he added.
On the other hand, in Lakshmipura, which comes under the C.V. Raman Nagar constituency, the residents did not wait for the piped water dream to happen. They took the help of a local politician to put pressure and got water to flow into their homes using the Japan International Cooperation Agency funds. “Before that, there was no sewage system either. Now we have learnt not to wait for someone to help us. We are going to vote for an independent candidate,” said Mahesh, a resident.
Some others also said they had resigned to the fact that neighbouring Indiranagar will always be the preferred destination for development. “There are big people there. Obviously everything will be reserved for them,” said Ganesh, another resident.
Big companies, no roads While it is the fight for basics like water in the other constituencies, wards in the Mahadevapura constituency, which house some of the world’s biggest companies within several tech parks, cut a sorry picture as far as roads are concerned. Residents complain that the condition of the roads is the same as it was in 2006 when the area had not even been incorporated into the Greater Bangalore area. From the recently dug up Marathahalli–HAL Road to the complete lack of roads in Nallurhalli, the lack of roads promises to be a major issue on the minds of voters in the upcoming elections.
“The situation is the worst during monsoons; the road just disappears and all of us are left to suffer every year,” complained Shalin Bhatt, a software technology professional who commutes to ITPL every day.
Zibi Jamal, member of Whitefield Rising, a group of activists who are fighting for better infrastructure in the area, said, “The main issue is that of roads. In fact, in Nallurhalli main road, near ITPL, there is no road at all. There are several people here who have been living for years and are yet to see development.”
