Instead of waiting for authorities to take action, students and techies in Bengaluru took matters into their own hands and came together to clean a dangerous stretch of Balagere Road. Notably, the slit buildup on the busy Balagere road between Kadubeesanahalli and Varthur made the road slippery for two-wheelers and hazardous for pedestrians. 

Frustrated by the situation, several IT engineers, college students and even schoolchildren, decided to step in. Pictures and videos of the cleaning drive that have surfaced on social media show several people donning gloves and removing the silt build-up on the road with cleaning tools. The citizens’ action comes after Bengaluru’s civic body, BBMP turned down multiple requests to clean the roads, citing a lack of funds.

See pictures and videos:

Clearing the way for the road side drains all by themselves. Roads are always flooded for little rain. Multiple requests to clean were turned down sighting no budget.#BalagereDemandsRoad#SaveMahadevapura@CMofKarnataka@DKShivakumar@0RRCA@WFRising@BPACofficialpic.twitter.com/QgnfeSAJy7

— NammaMahadevapura (@OurMahadevapura) June 23, 2024

The wonderful act of community service was praised by social media users. One user wrote, ”Techies in Bengaluru work for corporates during weekdays, earn, pay taxes, and spend their weekends  fixing BBMP’s neglected issues.”

Meanwhile, many also slammed the authorities for their inaction. A second user commented, ”This is shocking. Bangalore municipal bodies should be ashamed of themselves for harassing honest tax-paying citizens.”

A third stated, ”Just imagine how annoyed and irritated they must have been with the roadside dirt causing pollution that they took up the responsibility to clean it up instead of complaining.” A fourth added, ”Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar also reacted to the cleanliness drive and said that he has instructed BBMP officials to take immediate action to ensure the safety of residents.

He wrote on X, ”Sometimes some lessons turn out to be the best learnings, and taking a cue from the incident of Bengaluru residents cleaning Balagere Road, the concerned officials at BBMP have been personally instructed by me to take immediate action. The comfort and safety of our Bengaluru residents is of priority to us, and therefore BBMP has been also instructed to ensure that no such incident is ever repeated in the future.”