BENGALURU: Since October last year, reports have surfaced on the destruction of another one of the city's lakes - Pattandur Agrahara. Truckloads of debris was being dumped day and night into the lake's bed for the construction of an illegal road, and despite several protests and attempts by citizens to get the attention of officials, nothing has been done. Now, vigilance of a member of the local resident welfare association – Whitefield Rising – has stopped trucks from dumping debris from Metro construction.
Sandeep Anirudhan, who was quick to upload pictures on social media of a truck that had 'Namma Metro' sticker on them, says that they've been noticing Metro trucks coming in for weeks now, and that they come day and night to do dumping. "When I saw a Metro truck coming here during the day time two days back, I asked the driver of the truck where he was coming from, to which he replied saying that he was coming from the Metro site," says Anirudhan.
City Express alerted Vasanth Rao, chief public relations officer (PRO) of the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL), of this illegal dumping and action was immediately initiated against the errant sub-contractor. Rao said, the engineer in charge has taken strict action, and that he has asked the contractor to remove the debris by today. "The contractor has been filed with a `1 lakh fine, and has been asked to blacklist the sub-contractor. The debris will be cleared and sent to the designated dump yard," says Rao.
However, it is yet to be seen whether action will be taken, as despite several complaints, no debris has been cleared from the lake bed.