Shalimar Garden residents protest against civic body for bad roads

Residents of Shalimar Garden on Sunday protested against the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) for poor condition of roads in their locality.

Residents of Shalimar Garden on Sunday protested against the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) for poor condition of roads in their locality.

Shalimar Garden residents took to the streets on Saturday to protest against the poor condition of roads. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

On Sunday, more than 50 residents gathered near the Shalimar Garden substation and shouted slogans against the GMC. The residents later held rally from the substation to the 80 feet wide road in the locality, which is riddled with potholes and has been crying for repairs for a long time.

“The 80 feet wide road in the locality is one of the main entrances to Shalimar Garden and is filled with potholes. The road was last constructed in 2010 and since 2012, its conditions has been deteriorating,” said Pappu Pehalwan, a local resident and member of Shalimar Garden Vikas Samiti.

According to residents, other roads in the locality are also in a similar condition.

“There is not a single stretch road in the Shalimar Garden area which is free from potholes,” added Swatantar Srivastava, another member of Shalimar Garden Vikas Samiti.

Various complaints and talks with GMC officials, the protesters said, had not yielded any results.

“In the past two years, we have sent various complaints to the authorities regarding the poor condition of the roads. But except for some false assurances, nothing has been done on the ground,” said Suryakant Jha, a resident.

Officials of the civic body, in turn, claimed that their hands were tied as they had floated tenders for the construction and recarpeting of roads, but not received any response.

“In June a proposal was sent for relaying of the 80-feet road in Shalimar Garden, which was accepted by the department head. Tenders were floated for recarpeting of roads in August, but have not been handed over to any contractor yet. Hence there is a delay,” said Sunil Rai, GMC’s zonal in-charge at Mohan Nagar zonal office.