It’s wonderful to come back to Bengaluru. When you land in Terminal 2, you feel you are in one of the world’s best airports, one that’s aesthetically pleasing, modern, but in line with our cultural ethos. The weather is amazing and I always love the warmth of India when I am back here. However, once you make that road trip from Devanahalli airport to Sarjapur, your back tells you that something is not right. Especially if you do the last leg from Sarjapur road — Dommasandra to Chambenahalli stretch.
Whitefield and Marathahalli are fully built up and techies are now moving to newer apartments and communities in and around Sarjapur. Urban housing is filling in the space between its villages. Big builders from Manyata to Prestige are on a construction spree — with earth movers, trucks and other heavy vehicles a common scene. The large number of schools catering to these new residents mean lots of school buses too.
Now all this pressure is on these village roads. One such road is the Chambenahalli-Nerige Road.
“If you want to avoid Varthur road traffic and take the Chambenahalli-Nerige road, then be prepared for a free roller coaster ride until you get ejected out into standstill traffic at Varthur Road!”
Folks world over may ask, “Have you not solved your infrastructure problems for the last 25 years while you are solving the most complex technology problems in the world?”. They don’t know how ‘jugaad’, ‘somehow’ and ‘swalpa adjust maadi’ are our mantras.
The poor Chambenahalli-Nerige road has been unable to ‘swalpa adjust maadi’ and has given up and is almost without tar in multiple long stretches. My fellow residents from multiple new communities and apartments on the road, after a lot of running from pillar to post, over two long years gave up and walked in protest from the Chambenahalli junction to Yamare Panchayat on Saturday.
Residents vented their anger and shouted slogans – ‘No road, no tax’. They met with the Gram Panchayat Development Officer and handed over their memorandum. There was an air of excitement as the protest gathered a large number of residents and drew public attention.
The curious case of the missing road: Exists in reality, but not in records!
Then the story became interesting! The road was right there in the real world, but on government records, it was missing!
The PDO said, “Sir, this road is not under gram panchayat, we have to search (in the records).” He also added that the road probably belongs to the PWD (Public Works Department) and assured us that the PWD AEE (Assistant Executive Engineer) would come soon.
About 150 of us had gathered by 9 am for the protest. With the heat rising, some people started leaving. By noon, only a third were left, the system was testing their patience as they hung around waiting for the AEE. The engineer finally came around 12.30 pm; he then perused multiple documents and said, “This road is not in our list or works.”
Finally one resident fished out a response to his RTI request submitted a few months ago.
The road was found! Its official name was ‘MRL2 – Kathriguppe to SH35 via Nerige-Chambenahalli Road‘ and it had been handed over to the Panchayat Raj Engineering Department (PRED).
Activist-friends explained that our beautiful homes came under the Gram Panchayat that administratively falls under the Taluk Panchayat, which falls under the Zilla Panchayat (Anekal in this case). Now as the road is a Zilla road connecting to the State Highway 35, it comes under the PRED, part of the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Ministry.
Finally the PDO stamped the memorandum saying ‘Received’.
Wait, which road?
Meanwhile, we came across a document which talked about an 2023-24 Action Plan for Repair Works of Rural Roads of Anekal Assembly Constituency and referred to “Chambenahalli Nerige Junction to V.Kallahalli-Road-VR364”. According to the document, 1.62 km of this stretch was to be repaired, estimated at Rs 102.90 lakhs.
We are not sure if this is the right road in question, as what is marked is only 1.62 KM. Note that the road from MRL2-Kathriguppe to SH35 via Nerige – Chambenahalli is not included in the listed works. Only the road to V Kallahalli is mentioned.
There are multiple roads in the document which sound similar as well.
Therefore, the next step: go to Zilla Panchayat, find the PRED office, request the PRED officer to come along, then figure out our road and whether funds are allocated. And maybe approach the MLA and MP next.
In short, we have a long journey ahead of us, in spite of all the efforts over multiple years and the protest.
The community is not just workers in the IT sector, but also people from myriad walks of life, including those from the nearby villages, farmers, agricultural workers, artisans, builders, contractors, government officials, political representatives. All of us feel let down by the terrible shape of this community road and our inability to solve the problem. However the protest has encouraged us to come together; if we persist, we will win!
Citizenship still seems an alien concept to us culturally. This problem cuts across ethnic, education, gender, class, political lines . Civic sense is not related to cleanliness, littering alone but it’s about care for the other and non disturbance to the other in urban public activity.
If these become a value in urban public life then policy makers across party lines, builders, contractors, government authorities, panchayat officers, citizens could work well together and the roads will smile!
Basava talked about Kayakave Kailasa (work as worship) and Dasoha (service). Our texts also hold the concept of Dharma very dear. Dharma is nothing but Dasoha and right Kayaka in urban public life in this context or a right sense of citizenship not disturbing the other in public city life; Swaraj in public city life as Gandhi would have called it or Maitri in city public life as Babasaheb would have.
However, like all other dharma concepts, it remains in texts only and is not in practice as a cultural value. Time to understand, value and practise what is in our texts?
With inputs from Srinivasan Ramanujam for discussion on civic life.
Irresponsible Officers are getting promotions by the Vurtue of their Proximity with Local Politicians. Honest Officers can’t survive in this atmosphere. RDPR is having lots of Vanished Roads on its records but public not aware.
Try not to buy properties in unknown areas just because a big brand is building it. Smaller brands in better location is something people should stick to if budget is a constraint.