Techies vent ire over cattle on Kasavanahalli main road, seek action

BENGALURU: Techies living and going to their work places in the IT corridor have vented their anger against the authorities for doing nothing about stray cattle on Kasavanahalli main road in Mahadevapura Assembly constituency. They complain that they invariably reach their offices 40-50 minutes late as stray cattle hinders movement of traffic.

Those heading to work in the morning encounter long lines of buffaloes and cattle being led for grazing every day, sometimes stretching for about 2 km on the main road. There are many IT companies on Sarjapur Road and those living in adjoining areas say they are having to put up with the long lines of cattle for the last six months. This became every routine of those road users.

A Twitter handle, @SaveBellandur, posted pictures of the cattle on the road and tagged Mahadevapura MLA Arvaind Limbavali, the BBMP Commissioner, traffic police, Animal Husbandry Department and other in a series of tweets. “Daily march of bauffalos on #Kasavanahalli mainroad, chocking entire peak traffic for 30 minutes. Just 2kms away from Wipro, Microsoft’s of the world”, the tweet said.

Most of the time, it is left to the traffic police to clear the road and make way for the peak traffic. Local residents say that though they complained to the BBMP and even the MLA, they have not receives any positive response.

Ashok, a techie, claimed, “We are facing this problem for about six months. It takes a minimum one-and-half hours to reach office in normal traffic. Now, this has become a a big headache for us. Sometimes, it will lead argument between motorists and delay people heading to work till the buffalos on the road are cleared. It is the same problem in the evenings too. No one has taken action on our repeated complaints”.

Another techie, Vishnuprasad, a resident Kasavanahalli, said, “According to the CDP 2015, Kasavanahalli Main Road was supposed to be 18 metres wide, but the work was stopped. Footpaths have been encroached and cattle rearers drive their buffaloes on the road to cross from Junnasandra to Kasavanahalli or towards Kaikondrahalli around 10-11 am and 4 pm. It is creating trouble, especially during the peak hour”. He requested the authorities concerned to sort out the problem at the earliest.