Lopsided growth, absence of amenities plague Zone-4

LUCKNOW: From tall apartments to multiplexes and malls, this zone of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation witnessed the maximum growth in terms of population and the construction activities in the last few years. And yet, civic woes continue to be a blot on all such development activities.
In fact, a mall with all A-class facilities and a locality lacking drinking water supply exist side by side in this zone comprising 17 wards in all.Prominent and prestigious wards like Gomtinagar and Indiranagar, which have been witnessing lopsided development in the absence of enough coordination between various civic agencies add to the zone's glam quotient.
Residents point out how their aspirations to live in a residential locality lay shattered. "Even basic amenities like drinking water and proper drainage have never been up to the mark," said Alok Mathur, a resident of Kalyanpuri. He said that leave alone the poor condition of over head tanks, even hand pumps have also gone dry over a period of time in some localities. "And no government agency is bothered about it," he said. Ramesh Lal, a resident of Viram Khand in Gomtinagar said that with the coming up of Gomtinagar Extension, the crisis would only rise.
Complaining about the lackadaisical attitude of the civic officials, DS Tomar, a resident of Vinay Khand said, "It was only priority areas in the ward that were taken up by the civic authorities, while leaving the rest to their fate altogether."
Gomtinagar corporator, Awadhesh Mishra is candid in admitting that there has been complete absence of government attention throughout the five years. "The situation deteriorated in the last two years when funds were not made available to the corporators," said Mishra a BJP corporator. This time Mishra will not contest as the seat has been reserved for woman. So, it will be his wife, Kiran Mishra who will be trying her luck on a BJP ticket.
Indiranagar ward happens to be another one where both local representatives and the government did not bother much to give attention, even as all sorts of civic problems swirled around the residents. However, Indiranagar corporator, Ram Mohan Agarwal claims that he managed to serve the ward in whatever possible ways he could. "People always have high expectations with the corporator, which is probably the lowest level of public representation in an urban set up," Agarwal said.
One of the problems that the residents in the locality have been facing is that of poor drainage and bad conditions of roads. Most of the sectors in this one of the biggest residential colonies have been facing severe water logging. In fact, there have been a couple of accidents in which people had lost their lives. In 2010, a four-year-old boy fell into a dug up drain in sector-8 and died. Like Mishra, Agarwal, a former Congress corporator who switched over his loyalty to BSP, too will not be contesting the elections this time. Instead, his wife Poonam Agarwal is in the fray. She, however, will contest as an independent.
Barely five kilometres away is Chinhat, one of the most backward wards in the zone. Ward corporator, Sunita Devi who contested as an SP corporator said that rarely any help came from the municipal administration. "The locality has been prone to water logging since it is low lying," she said.
For residents of Paper Mill ward the municipal services have gone from bad to worse in the last five years. "The condition of sewerage has been extremely poor," said Ram Dev, a resident of Baba ka Purwa locality. Similar complaints were raised by residents of Bhikampur also.
For Rajesh Singh Gabbar, the Congress corporator who later switched his loyalty to BJP, it has been a fairly bad experience as a corporator. "There were times when municipal officials were not available at all to lodge our complaints. People know us and we are accountable to them," he said. He, however, maintained that somehow he managed to put pressure on the municipal authorities to put in place better civic amenities like roads and proper construction of drains. Gabbar, too, will not be contesting the elections this time as the seat has been reserved for woman. No prize for guessing, it will be Gabbar's wife, Deepanjali Singh who will take his place.
This zone too is dominated by BJP corporators. Out of 17 wards, eight corporators of BJP were initially elected. Later their number rose to nine with the addition of Rajesh Singh Gabbar to the tally. Congress received yet another jolt in 2007 when Ram Mohan Agarwal walked into BSP camp reducing the Congress tally to just one. Samajwadi Party on the other had four corporators in wards like Chinhat, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Nishatganj and Ismailganj-2.