Bengaluru:
Karnataka’s chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai, today blamed the “mismanagement” of previous congressional governments and the unprecedented rainfall in Bengaluru before the flood.
He said that, despite all the odds, his government has taken it as a challenge to restore the rain-ravaged city and ensure that such things don’t happen again in the future.
As a result of the torrential rain that has ravaged the state capital in recent days, several areas are still flooded with houses and vehicles partially submerged, affecting normal life.
“Karnataka, especially Bengaluru, has not had an unprecedented heavy rainfall. No such rain has been recorded for the past 90 years. All the tanks are full and overflowing, some have broken through and there has been continuous rain, it is raining every day,” said Bombay.
Speaking to reporters here, he said it portrays an image that the entire city is in trouble, which is not the case.
“The problem actually lies in two zones, especially the Mahadevapura zone for reasons such as the presence of 69 tanks in that small area and almost all of them have a breach or overflow, second all the settlements are in low-lying areas, and the third is affliction,” he summed up.
Noting that his government has seen it as a “challenge”, the prime minister said officers, engineers and workers and teams of the state emergency response force (SDRF) are on duty 24/7.
“We have cleared many breaches and we will continue to clear them. We are installing sluice gates to the tanks so that they can be better managed. I have instructed officials to ensure that the control room is working 24/7. We started with the -water in the Most areas. Except for one or two areas, almost all areas have been drained,” he said, adding that rain does not delay working properly as rain has fallen every day.
Bommai blamed “mismanagement and unplanned governance” by previous Congressional administrations for the current woes and said they had authorized “right-left-center” construction activities in the lakes, on the tank embankments and buffer zones.
They never thought of maintaining the lakes, he said.
“Now I have taken it as a challenge. I have given Rs 1,500 crores for stormwater drains development, I released Rs 300 crore yesterday to remove all tarnish and make a pucca structure along the stormwater drains and for the infrastructure so that there are no barriers and bottlenecks in the water flow,” he said.
When he found that the TK Halli pump house in Malavalli taluk of Mandya, which pumps Cauvery water to Bengaluru, is affected by the overflowing Bheemeshwara river and water from the surrounding lakes, the Chief Minister said, two pump houses were affected, the flood water will be drained, but it will take two days to drain the water and resume work at full capacity.
An alternative plan has been drawn up for the water supply to Bengaluru, he said. About 8,000 wells under Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) and 4,000 under Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will be activated and they would supply water during the disruption of Cauvery’s water supply to areas.
Water in tankers will be supplied on behalf of the government to the areas where there are no wells, he added. “I request the cooperation of people for the next 2-3 days.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)