KOPPAL: THE young, middle-aged and the seniors were all present on a Sunday morning at the Kadubesanahalli-Panathur Road, demanding better civic infrastructure in their areas. Residents of Panathur and Balagere, numbering over 400, formed a human chain bearing placards with civic problems scrawled on them.
The group, denied permission by the police to proceed on a protest march as originally planned, stood silently from 10.30 am to 11.30 am along the side of the road, stretching to half a kilometre, to highlight their grievances.
Among the protesters were Sheetal Kulkarni from ‘Namma Balagere’, a grouping of residents in Balagere. “The problems posed by water tanker drivers are terrible. Despite three deaths caused in a year by them, rash driving continues,” Kulkarni said.
IT professional, Anil Kumar Devaki of ‘Save Panathur’, the other resident association which took part in the protest, said that repeated pleas to the corporator Pushpa Manjunath as well as a personal visit to the MLA Arvind Limbavalli have not helped.
“There are over ten schools in the area and our children have got allergies due to the dust. Many have developed asthma and it has become acute in the case of those already suffering,” Devaki said.