The Karnataka government, especially the administration of its capital Bengaluru, has drawn criticism yet again after several students in the city’s Panathur area had to reportedly skip school and go back home after getting stuck in traffic for a long time on Wednesday. Residents of the locality, along with the school students, even held a candlelight protest against the incident.
The issue was first brought to light by a citizens group on Twitter for the Balagere region, which posted visuals of the residents’ plight on Wednesday. “The apathy is causing serious hardships to #Balagere citizens, a never ending suffering. Is this Civic/ Civil. this clarification reqd from our beloved leaders of this #PanathurBalagere stretch. Today’s saga where Traffic, commuters, Kids, school buses were found in shambles! (sic)” it tweeted, in a thread full of pictures showing huge traffic jams.
A candlelight protest was held in the locality, visuals of which made rounds on social media and caught the attention of many including Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education. A page called ‘Citizens Movement, East Bengaluru’, requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in Bengaluru, to visit this area instead of the airport.
The Panathur RUB junction has been infamous for its traffic congestion in the past with residents requesting for widening of the road multiple times. Sangappa Desai, a resident of the locality, also shared the video of the protest, which was then taken up by Mohandas Pai, who said, “State of our roads, @narendramodi Sir pl help!”
Tagging Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and several others, he continued, “Is there hope at all in Bengaluru? What are police doing to clear traffic? They have the tech!”
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the executive chairperson of Biocon Limited also tweeted, “Do the authorities even care? Citizens will have to keep shaming them into action.” “When we say authorities it’s the ground level officials – you can’t blame politicians. The contractors need to be held accountable by authorities but they don’t,” she added.
Several more visuals were shared by another Twitter user, who wrote that the Balagere road is a nightmare and that it takes two hours to travel five kilometres.
“..Kids stuck for hours to reach schools, school buses returned back after stuck in crazy traffic,” she tweeted.
(Bengaluru traffic police was not immediately available for comment. This report will be updated with the same shortly.)