BANGALORE: As the geographical boundaries of the city are getting pushed to accommodate the growth, the civic bodies are struggling as they make a desperate attempt to resolve the problems of a developing city like ours. But as they tread on the path of newer pastures, are they forgoing the older ones?Cox Town, a locality which is literally at the heart of the city is bearing the brunt of neglect. Absence of roads, lack of streetlights, clutter and filth all around are factors that are hard to deal with. But what does one do when the most important factor required to live is missing? Water. Tired of dealing and struggling with the water scarcity in the area and the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities, locals from Cox Town and Doddigunta will stage a protest on Friday at the Cox Town Circle. “We are protesting against the way we are being treated. We have hardly any water to drink and the roads are also in an abominable condition. It seems as though the officials are least concerned about us,” said Ravi, president of Bharathi Nagar Resident’s Welfare Association. The protest will be held at 10 am.Mrs Boward, a 65-year-old resident of 18 Webster Road has been at loggerhead with the civic authorities for years now. “There is an extreme water shortage in our area. We have been fighting with the Palike for a long time now. Fed up with the lack of interest in resolving our water problem, we finally met the chairman and complained to him. It was only after we formally went to the Palike with our problems that we began getting water once a day. Now we get water once a day for one and a half hours,” she said.The residents expressed their displeasure with the local civic bodies when they complained in unison that the local corporator of the area G Bhuvaneshwari, never visited the area post the election. Though the corporator sent her husband a couple of times, the residents refused to meet with the man. “Why should we speak with him when we elected her?” asked the angry residents.Boward also mentioned that after many complaints the Palike finally dug a few borewells in the locality, but the water for the borewell is unfit for consumption. “The water is muddy and dirty. How do they expect us to consume such water?” she questions.The situation in 9th Cross Kadirappa Road is far worse. The residents claim that the lanes in the locality were dug on the pretext of laying water pipelines. The corporator had informed the locals that the pipes that were being laid were meant to provide drinking water for them. But when the locals realised that the pipelines that were being laid were meant to supply water to the apartments behind their layout, the residents of Kadirappa Road were furious and had the work stopped. “They (Palike officials) said the water was meant for us, but they lied,” spat Lakshmi an angry shopkeeper. ‘‘They came and ruined our area,” she added. When contacted the corporator was unavailable for comments.Everyday women have to leave their work and collect water. Boward also mentioned that at times when the water tanker comes, it does not go to every house. “The tanker stops in only one place and for an old person like me it is very difficult to walk up and down to fetch buckets of water,” she explained.
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