​Dark streets a threat to women safety

One of the oldest wards in the city, residents of areas like Heera Nagar, Laxmi Garden, Om Nagar, Shanti Nagar and Shivaji Nagar have seen the shift of the municipality from a municipal council to a municipal corporation. Most residents have been voting since 1994 and have witnessed changes in the civic infrastructures from poor roads to cemented ones in some areas, slight improvement in conditions of parks and some installation of streetlights.
Ward councillor Suresh Kumar, the Congress district vice-president, who contested the MCG elections independently, has been elected successively since 1994 in the area which has 20,000 voters during the last municipal elections and above 70,000 residents.
Asked if there’s any difference in functioning of the erstwhile council and the present corporation, Kumar said there is “practically no difference”. “Working for so many years with the officials has given me the opportunity to make friends with them. I do have to persuade them to get the jobs done but my patience yields results,” said Kumar.
When asked whether he has made “noise” at House meetings, Kumar said this is just not his “style of functioning”.
“The problem with several of my colleagues is that they want immediate results for every work. However, when the same doesn’t happen, most get into arguments with MCG officials and then they hit a dead end. One has to understand that things take time and fighting is not a natural solution. There have been times when I have had to approach the chief minister who then directed the officials to do the required task and also asked them to send proposals for enhancing project limits, in cases where that was a hindrance,” said the councillor.
A major task which Kumar takes credit for is the relaying of a dilapidated sewage system in Om Nagar and Hera Nagar. “I have also got streetlights installed in several of these areas,” he asserts. Residents seem to be content on the whole with the performance of their councillor, except for their concern of safety due to missing streetlights and poor conditions of roads and rainwater drainage, post the monsoon season.