A patchy road to grabbers? domain

WHERE WOMEN feel unsafe to step out during nights. Where poor streetlights, water crisis and encroachments form identification marks. That’s Alambagh’s Ramjilal ward. The corporator gives himself 8 out of 10. But, the residents say the ward doesn’t deserve more than 5. Why?

“I am fed up with encroachments. I get shivers when I think of walking on the roads. All roads are heavily encroached. It’s a shame that 100-foot wide roads have been reduced to 8-foot patch,” says GL Kannaujia.

Shriram Gupta says, “We live with water-shortage here. We get water for a short time.

We have to fetch it from handpumps. And this has been like this since long.”

“The ward has no community centre,” says Susheel Agarwal. “For marriages and other functions, we have to look for other alternatives,” he adds.

KC Chandani says, “We are facing problems due to poor roads and unclean lanes and bylanes. Ponds and vacant places have been encroached upon. Sewer lines are not choked and drains often overflow.”

Gita, a housewife complains, “Streetlights hardly function. We cannot step out of our houses in the night due to security fear.”

Interestingly, corporator Ram Swaroop Verma admits to it as: “Yes, I have not been able to remove encroachments from Alambagh. I wanted a community centre in their place. But the nexus between the LMC officials and encroachers got the better of us.”

He counters other charges of residents as, “All kuccha lanes have been turned pucca. My ward has sewer lines and newly built drains. Sanitation in small lanes is also good.”

About water crisis, he says, “I wanted to get a tube well bored, but couldn’t do so in my tenure.”

He claims, “I will give 8 marks to myself. I think I have completed 80 per cent of work.”