Karnataka's Jayanagar: A planned area, but residents complain of corruption

BENGALURU: Jayanagar constituency in the South of Bengaluru is considered the best-planned residential locality with educated and politically aware voters. This adds up to the notion that all is well in this constituency.

Appearances are deceiving, say its residents and citizen activists. If half of Jayanagar lives in neatly-planned BDA developed layouts, the rest live on the fringes such as Gurappanapalya, JP Nagar and Byrasandra wards. The latter -- although not so much JP Nagar -- are as chaotic as any other unplanned, overcrowded urban locality.

Jayanagar’s residents, considered a privi leged lot, may not be nitpicking when they claim to see corruption on the streets. Keshava Kumar, President of Jayanagar Residents’ Welfare Association asked: “Where was the need to install new street lights when the existing lights were good enough? Isn’t it sheer waste of public money?” The residents wondered why a civic amenities site, reserved for a community hall in the 4th Block BDA Complex, has been occupied by a bar and restaurant.

“Daylight robbery is happening right before our eyes,” Kumar said. The constituency which was a Congress stronghold before delimitation, voted a BJP candidate to power for the first time in 2008. That was the same year A Ramalinga Reddy, who was then Jayanagar MLA from the Congress, moved to the newlyformed BTM Layout assembly constituency.

With Reddy gone, BJP’s B N Vijaya Kumar was elected two consecutive times (in 2008 and 2013). In the May 12 poll, however, may not be easy for the incumbent. Ramalinga Reddy’s daughter, Sowmya Reddy, , is the Congress. Ravi Krishna Reddy, an independent candidate, who was earlier with the Aam Admi Party, too is trying his luck from Jayanagar.