Residents of HSR Layout dread the rains. For every time there is a downpour, the drains here overflow and homes get flooded. Also, sewage often gets mixed with drinking water supplied to the area. Tired of their complaints falling on deaf ears, hundreds of residents took out a walkathon on Sunday demanding better civic amenities in the area.
“There was around three feet of water stagnating on the road during the rains that lashed the city a couple of months ago,” said G. Aruna, a resident of 6th Main, H.S.R. Layout Sector 6.
The drains were clogged and had become breeding ground for mosquitoes. Viswanath, another resident and a general physician, said there was around 30% rise in cases of fungal infections, viral hepatitis, conjunctivitis, and other water-borne diseases. With several roads also dug up, the citizens are fed up with poor civic infrastructure in the area. “I own an IT solutions company and because of the BBMP digging up the roads, customers are unable to walk into the building. This has caused me some losses,” complained M. Irfan, a resident.
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Bommanahalli MLA Satish Reddy said a list of complaints about the poor maintenance of drains had been submitted to the offices of the Mayor and the Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department. “Of the ₹60 crore allotted for maintenance of drains, only ₹15 crore has been released. I had raised the issue even during the recent Legislature session in Belagavi,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mayor R. Sampath Raj said that an expert committee had inspected the area and prepared a detailed project report to fix the drains.