The popular adage 'Water, water everywhere not a single drop to drink' applies to Vijaynagar and surrounding areas in the city. Though two major rivers-Cauvery and Kapila flow a few kilometres away from the city still drinking water is a big problem in Ward No 24 thanks to negligence of Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and Mysore City Corporation (MCC).
The efforts to ease drinking water woes through bore wells are not yielding the desired results. Unscheduled load shedding and erratic power supply have hit water supply through bore wells. The councillor, Pushpalatha T B Chikkanna is facing a Herculean task to address this issue.
The Ward No 24 comprises Vijayanagar 1st stage, Bogadi 2nd stage, Vijayashreepura, Regional College campus, Tonchikoppal village, Janathanagar, Vasanthanagar slum colony and Central Food and Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) colony.
One of the major complaints of these residents has been drinking water. Despite supplying water through tankers still there is a hue and cry for water. Sources said water is being supplied in 15 tankers daily equally to all the areas.
The works such as laying new pipeline and installation of water meter works as part of 24 X 7 water supply scheme have aggravated the problem.
Many areas get water on every alternate day. This has affected the daily routine of residents. In fact, this particular ward is facing severe scarcity of water when compared with other wards. The problem is more during summer season. The councillor has sought one year's time to solve problem.
The ward has a population of over 40,000. While 40 per cent of houses have been constructed in a planned way, rest of them built on the revenue land.
The residents of this ward are voters of Krishnaraja, Chamaraja and Chamundeshwari Assembly constituencies. Efforts are on to improve the condition of roads, UGD, street lighting and other basic amenities, despite a poor revenue collection.
The area is very big, but the funds earmarked for the development is pittance. So, this ward is denied of any development.
The door to door collection of garbage has been good so far. The other problems are poor maintenance of parks, vacant plots and encroachment of revenue land.
The government property the either sides of Hunsur road from Premier Studio up to Aishwarya Petrol Bunk were encroached. Recently, the encroachments were cleared under the guidance of Deputy Commissioner Harsh Gupta.
The residents demanded protection of other parks in the ward since they were not at all maintained by the departments concerned. People use the parks to dump garbage and construction materials.
The corporator told City Herald that she was giving much attention for widening of road starting from Sri Jayachamarajendra Engineering College up to Premier Studio via Andolana Circle.
Efforts are on to improve this road with the funds from MUDA, MLA grants and other government grants.