The road reconstruction work at BEML layout in RR Nagar is affecting shop owners nearby.
The residents of Rajarajeshwari Nagar complain of overcharged water bills and incomplete road works affecting businesses and livelihoods.
Asha who is a resident of Halagevadera(HV) Halli, Rajarajeshwari Nagar (RR Nagar), for more than seven years, said, “From the past two-three years, we are being overcharged on our water bill. As per the meter reading, our bill shows Rs 200, but when we get the print, it shows Rs. 400-500 extra under the name of ‘S.C. for borewell” The officials said the lack of rainwater harvesting plants is the reason for them charging extra, Asha added. The residents of HV Halli live on private land which is owned by Sridhar Sidanna. “We asked our landlord for rain water harvesting systems at our houses, but he declined. Two- three years back, he also said that he will renovate our houses but nothing has been done yet.”
Rupa, another resident of H V Halli, said, “With this overcharged price on our water bill, sometimes it gets so hard to manage monthly expenses. We have to pay extra Rs. 400-500 every month.” There are a total of 12 houses on this stretch of land and most of the residents are of lower income group.
Small business owners in 4th stage BEML Layout in RR Nagar are losing out on customers due to the road being closed as white topping work is ongoing. Manjunath Shetty who owns a store, said, “Earlier, there were small underground pipes, but the work here started because there was a need of larger underground pipes for better sewage and less water drainage. But, now they started constructing the whole road again which is not needed. There’s no need of white topping.” He added that the work, which started in December 2022 was supposed to be completed in a month or two, but is still not over. “Due to all this, I’m suffering financial loss. I have to pay nearly Rs 20,000 rent for my house and this shop, but since vehicles are not allowed on this road anymore, we get very few customers in a day.”
Sohanlal, owner of a gift shop at 4th stage BEML Layout, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, said, “Because of this road construction, we have seen almost a 60 percent decline in our customers. Since the work has been going on for more than four months now, it is causing a lot of problems for us.”
Rajarajeshwari Nagar has a total of 397 polling stations and 2,39,862 male and 2,22,473 female voters, as of January 2023, data from B-Pac shows. The current MLA is Munirathna Naidu of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who won 60.14 per cent of the votes during the 2019 by-poll. He defeated Kusuma H from the Congress party by a margin of 58,113 votes.
On April.5, the Rajarajeshwari Nagar police station filed an FIR against him for hate speech against Christians in his constituency.
