Clean on one side, trash on the other: Traders question BBMP’s eye-wash drive at KR Market

BENGALURU: Taking the BBMP chief commissioner’s directive seriously, the civic agency staff descended upon the K R Market area on Monday undertook a cleaning exercise. But when it was completed, the local traders were stumped: Trash had been removed from only one side of SJP Road!Traders on the busy Road — the key stretch connecting KR Market to Town Hall — were perplexed over why the road in front their shops remained neglected and littered with garbage.SJP Road is often flanked by black spots, accumulated silt, and uncollected waste on both sides. After the Commissioner's visit, traders were hopeful that the entire stretch would finally receive the much-needed attention, especially since the road becomes nearly unusable during rains. But to their disappointment, only one side of the road was cleaned. The other, which also suffers from illegal multi-level horizontal parking, remained untouched.Ravindra Aradhya C, who runs a shop on SJP Road, shared his frustration with TOI: “We saw the KR Market a little cleaner today than usual, but this isn’t enough — deep cleaning is needed. But the most disappointing thing is our road, mainly the side all our shops are located, is not even touched while the other side is cleaned. BBMP needs to clean this side regularly as we are losing customers.”Speaking to TOI, BBMP Commissioner Maheshwar Rao said the condition of the market was alarming.

“It was very shocking for me to see the market, and I don’t know how people are staying there and selling. The surrounding streets are also in a bad shape and managing the garbage is the main issue. I have directed the officials there to clean and maintain the area as clean as possible. However, we need to come up with ideas and plans to maintain KR Market and surrounding roads better… we will work on the same.

”During his Sunday visit, Rao also instructed marshals and supervisors to maintain cleanliness around the clock and prevent random garbage dumping.

He ordered a survey of traders operating in the market and called for strict action against those occupying extra space illegally. He also stressed the need for a master plan to ensure proper spacing between shops to ease congestion.The Commissioner additionally pointed out the misuse of the KR Market parking area, where several vehicles seized by the traffic police are currently parked. He instructed officials to clear these immediately and to work with the traffic department to identify and remove abandoned vehicles, improving parking and traffic flow in the area.Despite these directives, many on the ground feel the actions lack long-term vision. Rahul Goyal, a trader on SJP Road who has been consistently pushing for garbage clearance, said: “On one side, a lot of muck and debris was still found despite the cleaning, while the other side was relatively cleaner. However, we feel this is like a limited period offer, which means that it would be done only once or twice and we would be back to square one.

We were hoping that a long-term solution would have been planned which would be effective. The problem of debris strewn, bad conditions of the footpath, lack of toilets, urination on footpaths, desilting of drains, proper utilisation of the SJP park, converting the park to parking area or rainwater harvesting, mechanised sweeping, door-to-door garbage collection, recycling of waste, ensuring working of streetlights, etc.,

was not discussed.”BBMP Floats Tender for Battery-Operated Street Sweepers in Dense LocalitiesThe BBMP issued a short-term tender on May 31 for the procurement of 71 battery-operated mechanical street sweeping machines. These electric sweepers, each with a capacity of less than two cubic metres, are intended to enhance cleanliness in densely populated areas, mainly like markets and Commercial Street, aiming to significantly reduce dust levels across BBMP limits.The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 7 crore (exclusive of taxes), with an Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) of Rs 10.90 lakhs."BBMP floated a tender to procure 71 battery-operated sweeping machines for market areas, but we feel that we will never get to witness its working here. SJP Road, which is such a wide road, was never swept by any mechanical sweeper due to various reasons, and we feel that once again we will hear many other reasons, including now battery and charging issues, due to which these new machines will never be used. Rather than collecting dust from roads, these machines will attract dust once they are kept in BBMP premises for want of spares, service, charging, battery issues, and contract issues," Goyal added.