Life in shacks under flyover
BANGALORE: A beautiful house under the blue sky is a dream for everyone. But the dream for many remains just a dream. According to a census, lakhs are left homeless in namma city Bangalore. Most of them live on footpaths, under flyovers and the rest are provided with small shacks by our civic bodies.
One such tale is regarding the slums present under the flyover in Mathikere. The deplorable condition of the slum is such that it provides only one small room for an entire family, with no proper drinking water and sanitary facilities and moreover, the risk involved in staying under a flyover, falling prey to diseases and facing other hardships.
The slum in question is situated under the overbridge on M S Ramaiah Road of Mathikere built by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). When the Mathikere flyover was inaugurated to the general public, nobody seemed to be aware of the impact that it had on these slums. The BBMP had demolished 75 houses to build this flyover and for the widening of the road.
A promise was made to the people that soon they would be transferred to new houses of which they would have ownership. It has been more than one long year but the dream of these people living under this flyover is yet to come true.
Around four years ago, the scenario of Mathikere city and Gokula extension was awful due to the heavy traffic that prevailed at that time. This traffic was caused by one of the main railway tracks that happened to pass through the main road, M S Ramaiah Road of Gokul extension.
Frequent trains pass across this railway track thereby blocking the way of the commuters which in turn caused a delay in reaching their destinations.
The Palike had promised the slum dwellers that they would be relocated into a safer location within a short period of time. Those living under the flyover are migrants from neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh most of them belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Schedule Tribe (ST) and other backward classes.
These slums dwellers are supposed to be relocated under the 22.75 scheme of the BBMP. Under this scheme people belonging to SC and ST category will be provided with free homes by the Palike, though no measures have been taken to meet the goals.
“We lack basic facilities here. The drinking water we get here is extremely filthy and many people have fallen prey to several diseases. Even the sanitary facilities are bad,” said Dhanalakshmi, a slum dweller. Apart from these prevailing hassles, they are living under the noisy flyover and their lives are in a chaos.
When contacted the local corporator of the area, Muniswamy Gowda, said, “There are three slum dwellings in Mathikere. We are discussing the project and soon they will be relocated to Lakshmipura and other areas, where they will soon be provided with apartments.”
Though the authorities have promised these homeless a home, the wait has started taking its toll on the people. But they still hang on waiting eagerly to live in a comfortable home rather under the noisy flyover.