The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Reporter's Diary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 15, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Reporter's Diary

PROTESTS TAKE many shapes. From the "drum beating" kind staged with predictable regularity by Kannada Chaluvali leader, Vatal Nagaraj, to silent marches and black flag demonstrations. The last kind multiplies whenever some VVIP from Delhi visits our city.

The more recent kind are protests organised by the residents of neighbourhoods whose roads have simply ceased to exist and deteriorated into something that could shame a rural cart track. In fact, residents of such areas say self-respecting bullocks will not deign to traverse such roads.

When such protestors go to the extent of blockading roads, there are mixed feelings. They may end up losing public sympathy. At a recent protest by residents of a suburb, there was no road blockade as such.

They just halted for a while at a busy junction while marching. It was a warm morning and they wanted to catch their breath before marching further.

Point made, enough vehicles stalled, they graciously walked back to where they started from, with enough placards and banners to draw further attention.

* * *

ULSOOR LAKE was reportedly full of dead fish recently because of depletion in the level of dissolved oxygen after the fish population exploded.

This was a year after 60,000 fish from the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Fish Farm were introduced into the lake for better weed management and weed control.

At last month's Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Council meeting, our city fathers wondered whether diseased fish were released in the lake.

They had a lengthy discussion on whether chemicals from the nearby BMP swimming pool had been let into the lake and if it had poisoned the water; Or was it because of something else?

One member confidently dismissed this argument and said: "We were told that all the 60,000 fish belonged to the masculine gender. How did the population explode?"

And the entire house burst into laughter.

* * *

TALK ABOUT infrastructure bottlenecks often veers around pot-holed roads and increasing vehicular traffic. However, it is sad that little thought is given to pedestrians in terms of adequate pavements and zebra crossings.

For instance, the turning from Queen's Road to Cubbon Road is a free left and pedestrians are often forced to run and dodge past moving vehicles while they attempt to cross the road as there is no other way they can reach the other side of the road.

The same problem is seen in many other busy junctions, including at Minsk Square and M.G. Road, in the city. The authorities, however, have not taken any steps to solve this and there are many more intersections in the city that lack over-bridges or subways, a standard feature in other metros.

By K. Satyamurty,

Afshan Yasmeen

and Sahana Charan

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka

News Update

Stories in this Section

`Reach research outputs to farmers'

`Continue pay-and-park scheme till December'

BMP meet likely to discuss levy of infrastructure cess

Gang waylays man, takes away cellphone, cash

Man jumps in front of train, dies

Staff union threatens to stage demonstration

Around The City

In Bangalore Today

Reporter's Diary