Jalahalli residents repair a road in their locality.

BENGALURU: The festive season is in, but not all Bengalureans are having fun. Some residents are literally dirtying their hands to finish the job of civic officials, who have left many roads dug up and riddled with potholes, without taking up restoration work.

Residents of Sriram Sameeksha, an apartment complex in Jalahalli nortwest Bengaluru , on Sunday morning donned rubber gloves and gumboots as they headed out of their enclave. Armed with brooms, spades and pickaxes, they trooped on to the road linking Gangammana Gudi police station and Kuvempunagar. They cleaned and covered the potholes and relaid the rough stretches.

"The road was in a miserable state and we were forced to navigate it to reach our homes. But BBMP wasn’t doing anything about it," said Unni Krishna Menon, a retired navy officer and resident of Sriram Sameeksha.

Menon said Jalahalli has been divided between two councillors who constantly blame each other, leaving residents clueless about whom to approach to fix the poor civic amenities.

"There entire stretch has over 50 potholes and during rain it’s completely inundated. Women and children are the victims of these dreadful potholes," he added.

Menon mobilised over 20 resident groups for the Sunday endeavour, Shramdaan. The participants mobilised gravel and cement mix to fill the potholes and level the road. "The BBMP needs to know that it should fix the road. Because of official apathy, we are suffering and we do not want anyone to pay with their life," said Sreejith Nair, a resident of Abbigere.

Meanwhile, at the southwestern end of the city, residents of Rajrajeshwari Nagar decided to take matters into their own hands, with BBMP failing to collect garbage lying on the streets.

Narasimha Prasad, a civic activist and resident of RR Nagar, and his fellow citizens collected empty liquor bottles scattered on the road leading from Halligevadrehalli towards Manipal Hospital Road. "Many people drink and dump bottles on the streets and open areas, turning them into black spots. The civic agency, too, fails to clean them properly," said Prasad.

The bottles collected by the volunteers were placed on the edge of the road stretching up to almost a kilometre. "We lined up the empty bottles to spread awareness about how dangerous things can be if people litter indiscriminately," added Prasad. Later in the day, a pourakarmika cleared the junked bottles.

