Wilson Garden: The muck stops here!

BENGALURU: Wilson Garden is one of the busiest areas in the city. The once peaceful residential area has over the years turned into a hub of commercial activities, and the civic infrastructure has taken a beating.

The worst hit is Wilson Garden 5th Cross. This stretch of road is filled with sewage water, broken drains and garbage pile ups.

“You name a civic issue and it can be spotted in Wilson Garden 5th Cross and other roads in the area,” complained Shiva Kumar, a resident of the area.

He blamed it on apathy by the elected representatives and also lack of coordination between the different civic bodies.

“Hundreds of commercial outlets operating in the area do not have valid licences. The food units in the area do not dispose leftover food with care. It is just dumped into the drains and they eventually flow into the manholes in the area,” said  Pandiaraj, a resident of Vinayaknagar.

The drains in the area were built long ago when the population was a fraction of what it is now. They are not capable of carrying the load of the increasing population, he cited.

The storm water drain network is poor and during heavy rains, it overflows, he explained.

From past many years, the issue is not been resolved. It is taking years together to fix the problem, the resident lamented. Residents suggested that if the whole SWD network in the area is fully desilted, that itself will solve the problem to a great extent. They also insisted that the SWD is fully covered with meshes so that the illegal dumping of garbage into the drains is checked.

“Half of the residents do not hand over wastes to the BBMP. They directly fling their garbage stuffed in plastic covers into the stormwater drains. So what will happen to the drains? They get clogged and when they obstruct the free flow of water, the storm water drains overflow,” said Neeraj, a resident. He suggested that the government revives its drive against the encroachments on storm water drains.

Neeraj said that surprise raids should be carried out to find the hotels which are dumping their food waste into the drains. “They are commercial units. They should be handing over their garbage and wastes to empanelled vendors and not indiscriminately dump it,” he said.