On Sunday, residents of Kuvempu Badavane in Devanahalli marked the completion of a two-year campaign to get civic amenities for their area.
Asphalting work was completed on two main roads and four crossroads, amid cheers and photographs.
The campaign began in June 2020, when seven citizens of this north Bengaluru neighbourhood formed Kuvempu Residents Welfare Association to demand Cauvery water supply, underground drainage, piped gas, street lights, and good roads.
Until then, the association says, the amenities were “sub-par”. “The roads were not proper. The drainage system wasn’t efficient. We had very few street lights. The water supply was erratic,” says Dr M R Srivatsan, a medical doctor and secretary of the association.
Kuvempu Badavane has about 253 families living in independent houses and apartments. While a majority of residents moved here in 2000, a few had been living there since 1988.
Srivatsan recalls that his call for a citizen’s campaign was met with an enthusiastic response.
Soon the association met MLA Krishna Byre Gowda and explained their demands, and he put them on to the departments concerned. Meetings with the BWSSB, BBMP, Bescom, and GAIL (Gas Authority of India Limited) followed.
The families then contributed towards fees to be paid for these civic works. The residents, says association president Gangadhar Hiremath, have since been paying Rs 1,000 annually for maintenance. And then 148 women formed the Triveni Women’s Club to air their grievances about cooking gas supply.
“Our area is very rocky, so the roads were dug up for six-seven months to lay the Cauvery water pipeline. But today, we have all-day water supply, and piped gas, which is 40% cheaper than what is supplied in cylinders.”
“We have 26 LED street lights and a waste management facility that can process 100 kg wet waste and 75-80 kg dry waste every day,” he explains.
He says the adjoining areas are lacking in civic amenities and they can take inspiration from the success of the Kuvempu Badavane campaign. “The civic bodies responded to our demands well,” he says.