BENGALURU: Fed up with the pathetic condition of the road in their area, residents of Holiday Village Road planned a Gana Homa (fire ritual) at Sri Venkateshwara Temple on Sunday to highlight the road’s poor condition. Since protests are restricted to Freedom Park, residents chose this symbolic route, but the event was blocked at the last minute, allegedly due to external pressure. However, they still conducted a puja on a smaller scale on Sunday.
“We had scheduled the homa for Sunday at Venkateshwara Temple on HV Road but we received a call two days ago from the priest saying that he received directions not to conduct the ritual in the temple,” Manish Shukla, a resident, told TNIE, suspecting political pressure to stop the demonstration.
The residents said the road in question -- a 2.3-km stretch that is a vital connector to the main road, schools, colleges, and housing communities -- has been dug up multiple times for pipeline work but has never been restored properly. Whitetopping for the road was announced six months ago and has seen little progress due to inefficient contractors and inadequate monitoring.
Over 15,000 residents of HV Road have been demanding urgent action from civic authorities. Although the area was officially brought under Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike in 2021, it remains plagued by poor infrastructure and neglected maintenance, they alleged.
The residents have issued a public appeal demanding swift road restoration, transparent communication, contractor accountability, and the right to peaceful protests locally.