Viral: Bengaluru Residents Clean Balagere Road After Civic Body's Inaction (image-X/OurMahadevapura)
The Balagere road between Kadubeesahalli and Varthur in Bengaluru is notorious for accidents and poses a risk for drivers and pedestrians alike. After the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city’s civic body, gave up cleaning the road citing insufficient funds, the residents of the area took matters into their own hands.
With gloves and masks, children and adults took to the streets in a community-driven effort to clean the Balagere road on Sunday. Stretching nearly 3 km on both sides, a layer of slit creates havoc with two-wheelers often skidding.
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Students who also participated in the cleaning drive stated that their school buses would get stuck in traffic jams, making them late for school.
Clearing the way for the road side drains all by themselves. Roads are always flooded for little rain. Multiple requests to clean were turned down sighting no budget.#BalagereDemandsRoad#SaveMahadevapura@CMofKarnataka @DKShivakumar @0RRCA @WFRising @BPACofficial pic.twitter.com/QgnfeSAJy7
— NammaMahadevapura (@OurMahadevapura) June 23, 2024
As the photos from the drive went viral, Bengaluru Development Minister and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar stated that the BBMP officials have been “personally instructed” by him to take immediate action.
He stated, “The comfort and safety of our Bengaluru residents is of priority to us, and therefore BBMP has been also instructed to ensure that no such incident is ever repeated again in the future.”
Meanwhile, several netizens slammed the responsible authorities for their lack of action. One user noted, “Citizens pay tax and they only have to clean their roads. Authorities have no empathy.” Another user said, “The BBMP or BWSSB or any official overseeing or responsible for this place upkeep should just be removed from duty with immediate effect. With that logic half will be out of work.”
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One of the residents told India Today that the roads were filled with mud and potholes, leading to accidents. The resident asked, “What are the elected representatives doing as our kids suffer?”
They also claimed that despite making repeated requests to elected representatives and BBMP officials, they were told that there were no funds available for even basic maintenance services. As quoted by India Today, one of the residents asked, “We would like to ask the BBMP commissioner if there is an audit system in place to track the expenditure of the Rs 10,000 crores collected in BBMP taxes.”
