BANGALORE: Doddabidarakallu is a small ward in the outskirts of the city plagued by innumerable civic issues. Acute shortage of water, roads filled with garbage, bullying rowdies are some of the burning problems in this ward.
Ravisha a resident said, “We are suffering from lack of water supply. Despite lodging complains to the area Corporator, hardly any actions were taken.” He added, “The residents manage with the water tankers that are arranged by the corporator. Everyday, one tanker is sent to each lane where over 200 people reside. We get around 3 buckets per house each day. The same water is also used for drinking as we have no other option but to live with it.”
Corporator, TA Gayithree has constructed over 20 borewells in the area, but none of the borewell have gone deep enough to reach the ground water level, so the installations has gone in vain except for two borewells. Ravisha said, “ It takes almost an hour to fill one bucket of water as there is no force in the water.”
When Corporator, Gayithree was asked about the problems faced in her ward, she remarked that she cannot keep an eye on her ward constantly. She said, “I have a personal life.” Asserting her professionalism, she said, that she works only during the day and does not carry work home.
When City Express spoke to the residents of Doddabidirekallu, Veenu, a resident said, “There is no one who looks after this ward. The councillor visits here only when, there is a function. It is evident that she has no time to listen to our problems. I would request her to come and visit the ward at least once a month.”
Apart from lack of water and management, the area is crawling under poor sanitation, insufficient public transport, dark streets and lack of schools for children. A shop owner in the locality said, “We don’t have good schools in this area. There is not even a single college for students. Moreover, the constant smell that lurks out of the open drains due to poor sanitation has become unbearable.
The roads are also narrow and majority of the roads are damaged. It is quite dangerous during the night hours as there are no street lights. He added, “We are scared to approach the authorities, because there is a lot of internal politics taking place in this area, this have also lead to a lot of rowdies.” However, on a positive note, Mahesh a resident said, “We have so many issues in this area such as lack of basic needs but its good to see that there is little help coming from the corporator to provide us water.