BBMP fails, policemen prune trees for smooth traffic

Bengaluru: It appears nothing can shake the BBMP out of its apathy. While people continue to get injured colliding with dead trees and their branches fallen across Outer Ring Road near Ibblur, it has not removed them for nearly a year. Even the traffic police has had no success in getting it to act despite several reminders. As a last resort, the policemen even tried to remove the trees themselves although they are not equipped for the job.

Not only are the dead trees dangerous to commuters, but often cause traffic jams on the road from Ibblur to Agara as well. The fed up people of the area  approached the  BBMP and BDA several times to clear the dead trees, but received no response. Finally, they turned to the HSR Layout traffic police. But its experience was no better.

Says traffic inspector, Rao Ganesh, of HSR Layout, “We first posted an online complaint on the BBMP website on January 31, requesting it to cut dead trees that were posing a threat to commuters. When there was no response, we decided to file another complaint on February 12.  When there was no response this time too, we decided to call the control room.”

Though several calls and complaints were made, nothing changed.  Mr Ganesh then sent his traffic policemen to the local BBMP office every day. “Three of our men tried their best to draw the BBMP’s attention to the dead trees on Outer Ring Road. But even this did not help,” he complains.

Meanwhile , a woman biker was hurt when she came up against a fallen tree on the road. Not willing to wait any longer, Mr Ganesh decided to cut the trees himself with the help of  three  assistant sub-inspectors and a constable. But  it was no easy task as the traffic men don’t have the necessary machinery.

“The BBMP, which realised we were planning to cut the trees, sent three workers and officials to the spot. But their axes were old and the rope to pull down the tree cut midway. Despite our request to complete the job in one day, the workers brought down a couple of trees and went away,” the traffic inspector deplores, revealing that local residents then joined the police in clearing the branches on the road. “We urged the officials to also bring down the dead tree outside the HSR Layout traffic police station as it could be dangerous to people. But they have ignored this as well,” he rues.