Singasandra a synonym for civic apathy; bad drainage, inept garbage collection hurt residents

By J Vignesh

BENGALURU: Located within a 5-km radius of IT hub Electronics City, the Singasandra ward is all about bad drainage, non-functioning streetlights, lack of Cauvery water and poorly maintained roads.

The locality's backwardness is in stark contrast to the workplaces of the people it houses, mainly IT employees.

"The drainage was blocked for the past three months but nobody bothered. Unable to bear the stench, we called the authorities. Finally, they cleared the mess only on September 19," said Manorama Adina, field coordinator at the Azim Premji Foundation and a resident of 9th A' block, AECS Layout.cross, Drainage aside, the garbage collection and segregation is also a problem in AECS layout. Vikas Kumar, an employee at IBM, whose house is behind the garbage segregation yard, said, "There is a lot of smell from the yard. The garbage from the yard comes on to the road and makes the area look dirty.There are also a lot of pigs".

The youth in the ward complain that there are no playgrounds in the area except those inside educational institutions and in Parappana Agrahara. Residents said that Cauvery water is not supplied to their area and even the fumigation, necessary to curb the mosquito menace, is not carried out.

The non-availability of drinking water is a common complaint too."We have to depend on private tankers for our drinking water needs and we are charged maintenance fees for these tankers," said Yusuf Ansari, an employee of Accenture and a resident of Kudlu layout.

Compounding their worries are the state of roads and the traffic congestion. "The roads are full of potholes and during the peak hours, the traffic is not managed," said Prasoon Swaroop, an employee of NetCracker Technology.