‘Too many shops creating a civic mess in Wilson Garden’

Janaspandana: Residents of Chickpet Assembly segment complain of poor amenities

Many residents attended the event. DH PHOTO/M S MANJUNATH

Thoughtless issuance of trade licences lies at the root of civic problems that have degenerated Wilson Garden into a lousy neighbourhood in central Bengaluru.

Once a peaceful residential locality, Wilson Garden today is beset with traffic jams, haphazard parking, shrinking pavements and roads, uncleared garbage, overflowing manholes, flood-prone streets and whatnot.

This was the common theme of what many residents articulated at Janaspandana - Citizens For Change, a civic grievance redress meeting organised by Deccan Herald and Prajavani on Saturday.

The meet focused on civic issues in the Chickpet Assembly constituency, of which Wilson Garden is a part.

Chickpet MLA Uday Garudachar of the BJP and BBMP corporators heard the residents out and promised to address their concerns. Despite a meeting of the BBMP council scheduled for the day, Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun (who represents the Jayanagar ward, which falls under the Chickpet constituency) and some other corporators made it a point to show up for the event.

Overflowing drains

Many citizens highlighted the problem of overflowing drains during the rainy season, blaming the lack of coordination among different civic agencies for it. This newspaper recently carried two reports on the problem but little has been done to solve it. Responding to the issue, BWSSB officials promised that they had taken the necessary steps to ensure that the drains wouldn’t overflow again.

Complete solution by Jan

“For now, we will be pumping the stormwater drain into Koramangala. This will stop the clogging of water in Wilson Garden. Drains will not overflow again,” said Desai, a BWSSB executive engineer. He, however, made it clear that a permanent solution would be possible only by January 2020 once the new sewage treatment plant is up and running in Koramangala.

Traders encroach on streets

Residents of Sudhama Nagar complained how some garages had encroached upon the streets.

The parking of heavy passenger/goods vehicles by private bus operators such as KPN Travels and SRS Travels was also raised. A few residents blamed the police for poor traffic management in the area. The MLA instructed the traffic police to address the issue immediately.