Residents argued that hasty road repairs without completing the drainage network waste public funds and put taxpayers’ contributions at risk.
Published Oct 15, 2025 | 2:26 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 15, 2025 | 2:26 PM
Bengaluru residents highlighted the poor infrastructure development in Bengaluru.
Synopsis: The Individual Taxpayers’ Forum, a representative of Income Taxpayers in Bengaluru, wrote to the chief minister demanding better infrastructure development in the city. They wanrned that they would stop paying taxes if their demands are not met.
“If the GBA continue(s) to ignore the taxpayers’ request on basic public infrastructure, we request you to order the GBA NOT TO COLLECT PROPERTY TAX FROM us. Give us good public infrastructure and collect taxes,” said the residents/taxpayers of Varthur, Balegere and Panathur in Bengaluru in a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The letter, dated Monday, 13 October, was written by the Individual Taxpayers’ Forum, a representative of Income Taxpayers seeking to uphold the protection of taxpayers’ rights through social activism since September 2024.
The forum said the citizens are suffering due to the bad civic infrastructure planning by the municipal authorities — the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBM) and the current Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA).
They said the letter was intended to draw the chief minister’s attention to the “ongoing, half-measured, unscientific and poorly coordinated road white-topping, and stormwater drainage works in the Varthur-Balgere-Panathur area”.
They said that the floods on 10 and 11 October, which they claim were among the worst ones the city has seen, were due to the absence of a properly connected stormwater drainage network to carry rainwater into water bodies, such as Varthur Lake.
The forum added that despite the chief minister’s visit to this locality on 27 September, the municipal bodies ignored his instructions, planning and resorted to shortcuts.
They noted that the authorities failed to act on:
Residents argued that hasty road repairs without completing the drainage network waste public funds and put taxpayers’ contributions at risk.
“Such half-measures will only lead to rapid deterioration of the new roads, wasting public funds and taxpayer contributions. Panathur main road repair work, done recently, is already seeing water accumulation because of bad sloping,” they said in the letter.
The forum demanded a scientific audit of ongoing works, completion of the stormwater network before further construction, and accountability for municipal officials and contractors.
They also demanded that proper good good-quality roads be built along with footpaths for people to walk safely. Citing Bengaluru’s role in tax generation for the nation, they said the taxpayers are demanding what is rightfully due to them.
“Bengaluru was known as the Garden City, Silicon Valley and Retired Persons’ paradise, once upon a time. In the last few decades, the recognition has changed, and we, being the citizens and residents of Bengaluru, don’t want to hear our city as Garbage City, Pothole City, Traffic Jam City, No Footpath City, Poor Public Infrastructure City, etc.,” the letter read.
They warned that if authorities continue to ignore citizens’ requests for essential infrastructure, residents will refuse to pay property tax, asserting that tax collection must be tied to the delivery of basic civic amenities.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
