Bengaluru floods: Flooded roads with bikers pushing their two-wheelers in knee-deep waters remained a common site in Bengaluru on Tuesday as the city faced a second day of heavy rains. The city experienced a fresh spell of rain on Tuesday, a day after the general hum of things got disrupted in the country's IT-hub due to a torrential downpour. Schools declared holidays while several companies asked their employees to work from home.
Woman gets electrocuted on flooded road
The city reported one death from Siddapura area after a woman got electrocuted on a flooded road amid heavy rainfall. The incident is said to have taken place on Monday night, when the victim was returning home on her scooter.
"Karnataka, especially Bengaluru has received unprecedented heavy rain...for the last 90 years such rain has not been recorded. All the tanks are full and are overflowing, some of them have breached, and there have been continuous rains, every day it is raining," he said.
CM Bommai blames 'maladministration' of previous Congress govts
Citing 'unprecedented rainfall and overflowing' water bodies as the main reason for the deluge, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai cited assured the people of his government's commitment to restore normalcy. He also faulted the 'maladministration' of the previous Congress governments for the present situation of the city and insisted only two zones bore the brunt of rains although a picture was being painted as if entire Bengaluru was struggling. The opposition party hit back at the chief minister for his accusation.
Clarifying on the situation faced by the city, Bommai told reporters that an image was being created as if the entire city is facing difficulties, which was not the case. "Basically the issue lies in two zones, particularly the Mahadevapura zone for reasons such as presence of 69 tanks in that small area and almost all of them have either breached or are overflowing. Secondly, all establishments are in low lying areas, and the third is encroachments," he listed out.
Bommai said they had given permissions for construction activities "right-left-centre" in the lake areas, on the tank bunds and buffer zones. They had never thought of maintaining the lakes, he said and hastened to add he has now taken up a challenge to set things rights and had allocated Rs 1,500 crore for development of stormwater drains.
Bengaluru continues to real under heavy downpour
Citizens continued to face difficulties and roads, streets, posh localities continued to reel under water. Expensive top-end cars and vehicles lying under water, even in areas that have luxury villas, was a common sight.
"I came by tractor as roads are all submerged in water, also our vehicles are under water... I have exams from tomorrow, so I have to go to school," a girl dressed in school uniform said. READ MORE
"Water has not receded, as there was rain once again last night (Monday), in fact I feel it has increased. I have to go to the office, kids have schools, and I somehow used a tractor today. Request the government and authorities to do something and restore normalcy," said an office goer.
Several private schools have declared holidays and have switched to online teaching for a few days, while many firms have suggested that employees work from home.
Traffic affected due to rains
Most parts of the Outer Ring Road, Sarjapur road, that houses some IT firms resembled lakes, affecting the movement of vehicular traffic. Tractors were ploughing through the flooded roads and streets, ferrying people to their respective destinations. According to chief minister Bommai, some areas in the state capital have received 150 per cent more rains than normal between September 1 and 5. Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli and K R Puram have recorded 307 per cent excess rain, he said, without elaborating. "This was the highest rainfall in the last 42 years. All the 164 tanks in Bengaluru are filled to the brim," he said.
Met department issues yellow alert for rains
According to the Met Department, the city is expected to experience a spell of heavy to moderate rain for the next weather five days. Dr Geeta Agnihotri, Scientist, Meteorological Department said, "Widespread rains will take place for the next 5 days." She further added that the city will face widespread rains for the next 3 days after which fairly widespread rains will lash the next 2 days in South interior Karnataka.
KTR called for 'bold reforms in urban planning and governance'
Meanwhile, responding to the floods in the city, Telangana minister KT Ramarao called for 'bold reforms in urban planning and governance.' Our cities are our primary economic engines driving the states'/country's growth and with rapid urbanisation and sub-urbanisation, "infrastructure is bound to crumble as we haven't infused enough capital into upgrading the same," he said in a tweet.
"We need bold reforms in urban planning & governance. Get away from conservative mindset..." he said in another tweet. "Clean roads, clean water, clean air & better stormwater management systems are not hard to build," Ramarao, son of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao, added.
Hitting back at Bommai for blaming previous Congress governments' 'maladministration' for the city's rain woes, the party's state president D K Shivakumar urged the CM and his administration to perform or face an election. He also alleged the "corrupt" BJP government and its officials were responsible for Bengaluru's current situation.
Bengaluru's second wettest rainy season in last 50 years
Chief Commissioner of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Tushar Giri Nath on Monday claimed that this is the second wettest rainfall of the city in last 50 years. He said, "With 162 lakes full the rains have caused flooding, however the situation was brought under control quickly and the flooding is localised between two biggest lakes Bellandur and Varthur. The flooding is only limited to 5-6 sq km out of 800 Sq km area of Bengaluru."
(With inputs from agencies)
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