Residents perform puja on potholes in Bengaluru’s Charles Campbell Road

Residents of Bharathinagar, near Cox Town in central Bengaluru, staged a unique protest on Tuesday morning to highlight the poor condition of roads in their locality.

They got two priests to perform puja to potholes, hoping to shame the civic body into asphalting the roads that have been endangering vehicle users.

Residents specifically complained about Charles Campbell Road, which leads to areas such as Shivajinagar, Fraser Town and Murphy Town, saying the one-km stretch is filled with a large number of potholes. “Around 50,000 people use this road every day. We have seen motorcyclists skid and fall. There have been minor accidents, too, but the road has not been repaired for the last three years,” said N S Ravi of the Bharathinagar Residents’ Forum.