In rain-hit Bengaluru, Mallasandra residents in no man's land
BENGALURU: The state government had brought the Mallasandra area, which was earlier governed by the panchayat, under the aegis of the BBMP in March 2021. However, one and a half years later, around 7,000 residents are now struggling without the support of either the Kaggalipura panchayat or the Bengaluru civic body.
Co-operation Minister and Yesvanthpura MLA ST Somashekhar spent time with the aggrieved residents on Sunday evening promising to redress their grievances.
Srivatsa Vajapeyam, co-founder of the United Federation of RWA, comprising 35 Federations in Ward 198 (Hemmingepura), said, "We have struggled for many years to become a part of BBMP. However, the builder lobby was strong, and opposed it as they can easily get plans approved from a panchayat body. In March last year, we came under the BBMP limits, but there was no improvement."
"Unless the A-Khata certificate is issued to us by the BBMP for our properties, there can be no selling or buying," he added.
Laying of roads as well as water pipelines too have not commenced. The Holiday Village Road in Mylasandra upsets Shilpa Rao, a regular commuter.
"The road is in a bad shape, waiting for accidents to happen. There are educational institutions, and hundreds of students use this road. To add to it, apartments are being built and concrete mixers damage the roads," he said.
Sriram Balasubramanian, a resident and an IT Director at Phillips, said the condition of the road has been deplorable over the past five years, adding,
"Not only this road but all parallel roads connecting it have issues. If someone has an emergency, ambulances refuse to come to the location. Cabs and food delivery executives are also refusing to come to the location. The terrible state of roads are impacting our lives,” he stressed. “We have been waiting for A-Khata certificates for our sites since 2014. We have not been able to pay our property tax to BBMP this year because of its absence," he added.