Sarvagnanagar lives up to its name

Sarvagnanagar, more popular as Cox Town, which was named after the last Collector and District Magistrate of the Bangalore Civil and Military Station, Alexander Ranken Cox, is one of the suburbs that came out of the plan to decongest thickly populated areas of the Bangalore Cantonment after the bubonic plague.

It is an important ward in the CV Raman Nagar Assembly constituency represented by MLA S Raghu. The specialty of Cox Town is that it hogs the limelight whenever something big happens, be it a festival, Chinese hostility, poor condition of roads, lack of infrastructure facilities, or a hike in power or fuel prices, thanks to Bharathinagar Residents’ Forum that stands like a rock behind its residents.

The residents, especially Bharathinagar Residents’ Forum led by its president N S Ravi, hold the record of staging the maximum number of protests as well as celebrating festivals with conservancy workers and people from economically weaker sections and those challenged visually. They have also lent a helping hand to needy people particularly during the first and second waves of the Covid pandemic.

They successfully prevailed upon South Western Railway authorities to open a booking counter and also halt some important trains at Bangalore East Railway Station for the benefit of people residing in and around Cox Town. Their other achievement is, with MLA S Raghu’s cooperation, was to get the much-needed flyover that connects Cox Town and areas around with Maruthi Sevanagar.

“I have to thank the Bharathinagar Residents’ Forum for not only organising protests against price hikes of essential commodities but also for felicitating prominent personalities. We have the privilege of having Kannada movie stars and prominent personalities as chief guests at functions organised in our area,’’ said a homemaker.

The celebrities including Ramya, Jennifer Kotwal, Hari Priya, Pooja Gandhi, Justice Santosh Hegde, Parvathamma Rajkumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar, Puneeth Rajkumar, Tara, Ragini Dwivedi, IPS officer D Roopa and others. Other achievements of the locals include relocating a liquor shop that became a nuisance for children, students and senior citizens. Members of Bharathinagar Residents’ Forum and residents on Charles Campbell Road and Assay Road demanded that the BBMP authorities fill up potholes and “craters” to avoid road accidents.

While Charles Campbell Road is the main link between Cox Town and Jeevanahalli, it is also the one and only road to connect Kalpally Burial Ground or Crematorium or Kalpalli Christian Cemetery, the Assay Road connects Cox Town and other areas to reach Halasuru Lake and proceed towards Old Madras Road and areas thereabout.

The BBMP authorities asphalted Assay Road and filled potholes on Charles Campbell Road only after the proactive residents here staged a protest and performed a pothole puja. The Bharathinagar Residents’ Forum has played a key role in convincing the BBMP to allocate funds for the maintenance of former president late Neelam Sanjiva Reddy’s Samadhi near the electric crematorium at the Kalpalli cemetery. Their long-pending demands are opening the newly-constructed market complex on MM Road and asphalting of roads that need immediate attention.

The BBMP has completed construction of the new market complex but delayed allotment of shops to vegetable, fruit, mutton and fish vendors who were vacated from the old market that made way for the new one, which also accommodates BBMP offices.

For years, these vendors have been doing business from temporary shops set up on the MM Road footpaths. People living in the locality are upset at the “apathetic attitude” of the authorities concerned.

They take their own sweet time to redress residents’ grievances, they complain. Last but not the least; children have no proper playground in the locality, they rue. They have staged a protest demanding that the BBMP authorities allow their children to use the playground leased to a private school in the area.

I am very happy with the cooperation and help extended by our MLA to fix our civic problems. I want the BBMP authorities to ensure residents use the playground leased to Clarence High School. I expect the BBMP authorities to ensure cleanliness at Kalpally Burial Ground and construct residential quarters for its grave diggers. My appeal to MLA Raghu and BBMP authorities is to open the market complex as early as possible. — N S Ravi, president, Bharathinagar Residents’ Forum

The condition of Charles Campbell Road was pathetic a few months ago. The BBMP authorities filled up potholes and craters on it only after we staged a protest and performing a pothole puja. I am of the opinion that BBMP authorities should fill up potholes and asphalt roads without waiting for residents