Footpath or trap?

The footpath in front of Jyoti School, St. Thomas Town Post, is in a bad condition with slabs missing and a few broken electric poles left lying down.
Some of the slabs are shaky and people need to be careful while walking on it. Some residents complained that the situation has been persisting for many months with no action or inspection done by the authorities concerned. Besides the passers-by, school students and college-going crowd, who have to regularly pass through the footpath, are afraid of walking for fear of tripping and falling down.
Shwetha. J, who studies in Jyoti School, said: "One of my schoolmates recently fell and was hurt. Since then, I have been very careful while walking on the footpath as it is not in a proper state and I can't use main road also as its very crowded all the times with vehicles." A fallen tree and poles on the footpath have further obstructed the walkway. According to some people residing in the area, the poles have been lying there for the past two weeks.
"I have to carry a huge bag every day and on top of that the path is not good. Once my leg got stuck which was really frightening and recently I slipped while walking. Why can't the BBMP take any action? Elderly people and children are especially suffering due to this. I request the authorities to look into this matter seriously and take required steps," said Jayamma, who sells food items near the footpath.
The gap left by the missing slabs is quite big and could easily be a death trap with thousands of people using it. There are incidents of people facing accidents like broken limbs and sometimes slipping due to poor visibility especially among elderly citizens. "No one is taking care of the road. First of all, the road should be cleaned and the footpath is filled with muck. We need a proper footpath as every 2-3 minutes there is a heavy traffic on the road," echoed a frequent passer-by, Geetha.
When Cityplus contacted Ramegowda, Assistant Engineer, Ward No.29, he said: "I will visit the area and get the shaky slabs replaced with the new ones besides repairing the broken ones".
Talking about the lying poles, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) Assistant Engineer, Chandrashekar, said: "Last year in the month of December, a tree had fallen down damaging five poles in the line. So we replaced them with new ones. Those which are lying are old poles that were broken and we will remove them within a week."

Virtual death trap
The gap left by the missing slabs is quite big and could easily be a death trap with thousands of people using it. There are incidents of people facing accidents like broken limbs and sometimes slipping due to poor visibility especially among elderly citizens.

--NIVEDITHA JAIN