As City Express completes one month of its ‘Vanishing Footpaths’ campaign, we bring to you a snapshot of the drive which sought to give the common man his right.
Malleshwaram, Tilak Nagar, Kempegowda Road, Ganganagar, Church Street, Kasturba Road, Richard’s Town, Mosque Road, Cantonment Railway Station Road, Bannerghatta Road, Rajaji Nagar, BVK Iyengar Road and Majestic were some of the areas we covered over the last month.
The commonalities between all footpaths of Bangalore were that they were either used as parking spaces by two-wheelers and four-wheelers or were encroached by hawkers rampantly or were unevenly laid slabs or had huge dug up areas with leaking sewage and garbage dumped.
While some corporators promised to rectify the problem, others did not respond favourably to our queries; some were completely helpless and said that despite regular warnings and threats to those who encroach footpaths, no one followed the rules of the land.
The blame game between the various authorities also came out through this campaign.
The corporators complained of inefficiency on the part of the government and a lack of funding while also blaming workers who refused to work because of non-payment resulting in irregular clearing of garbage from footpaths.
In some cases, the MLAs of the constituency held the government responsible.
Through this campaign, we ask for is space for the long forgotten pedestrian in a world where law makers are busily zipping across the city in their luxury rides.
And the section of the public that does not set foot on the pavements take the rights of the pedestrian for granted and inconveniences the rest by parking on pavements.