stumbling blocks: Stones and mud dumped on the pathway at Sankey Tank in Bangalore. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: Cobblestones strewn all over the green lawns. Trucks carrying construction material inconveniencing people taking walks in the area. The restored Sankey Tank and its surroundings, inaugurated only a year ago, are no more picturesque.

The Bangalore City unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike is wasting taxpayer's money by taking up the second phase of restoration of Sankey Tank.

Speaking to presspersons here on Monday, S. Prakash, BJP city unit spokesperson, said the BMP has already spent Rs. 4 crores for renovation of the tank in the last two years and less than a year after it was opened to the public, it has started work on the tank again. "This is an excuse for the BMP officials to make money. Whatever work was done earlier has now been wasted," he alleged.

Moreover, no tenders were called for the second phase of restoration and the work has been started clandestinely, he alleged.

Aswathnarayana, President of the Bangalore city unit of the BJP, said an inquiry by the Corps of Detectives should be conducted into the matter. He alleged that the BMP has taken loans from the Housing and Urban Development Corporation and the Karnataka Urban Development Finance Corporation for road works and other works, but the money has not been used properly.

A trip around the tank reveals that where there was once a cobble-stoned pathway, now only a mud road remains. Grills demarcating the tank and along the pathway have been taken out and dumped on the lawns and the pathway. The green lawns are now covered with mud and stones.

The BMP has been digging up the entire 1,700-metre pathway and removing the cobblestones laid there. This has to done because the water level in the tank has been raised from 928.8 metres to 929.9 metres. So the tank bund level has to be increased by one metre from the existing level because water from the tank may overflow on the bund through the waste weirs. The width of the pathway is also being increased by 4.5 metres. All this will be done at a cost of Rs. 35 lakhs and the work will be completed in two months.

The BMP claimed that the work on Sankey Tank is based on a survey conducted by the State Mines and Geology Department.

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