CM Siddaramaiah blames ‘unexpected downpour’ for people's woes in Bengaluru

CM Siddaramaiah blames ‘unexpected downpour’ for people's woes in Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said several areas in Bengaluru were affected due to unexpected rainfall.

CM Siddaramaiah blames ‘unexpected downpour’ for people's woes in Bengaluru

He stated that he had instructed officials to take up remodelling and de-silting of clogged stormwater drains .

“Today, we have received unexpected rainfall—104 mm in the last 24 hours. Many areas in Bengaluru were affected,” Siddaramaiah told reporters after receiving updates from Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike officials.

As many areas were inundated due to the downpour, the CM had planned to visit the rain-affected locations along with his deputy D K Shivakumar, who holds the Bengaluru Development portfolio, and other ministers.

However, Siddaramaiah postponed the visit and decided to tour the city on Wednesday instead.

“I will go for city rounds the day after tomorrow. If I go today, it will cause traffic issues, and after sunset, I won’t be able to assess the situation properly or speak to affected residents,” Siddaramaiah said.

He said he had been instructing BBMP officials about encroachments on SWDs, the shallow depth of drains, and the accumulation of silt.

According to Siddaramaiah, Bengaluru has a total of 859.90 km of SWDs.

“So far, we have built retaining walls for 491 km of drains. Construction is underway for 195 km. We’ve taken a loan from the World Bank to remodel 173 km of SWDs. The work is in progress,” he said.

Once the remodelling of all the drains is completed, flooding can be prevented, he added.

The CM also said that 210 low-lying areas have been identified and categorised as sensitive or hyper-sensitive.

Work in 166 of these areas has been completed, while it is ongoing in 44 others, he said.

“Once these 44 sensitive areas are addressed, most problems will be resolved. Work is currently in progress in 24 of them,” he explained.

Siddaramaiah also emphasised that action against encroachments would be taken without bias, regardless of the influence of the encroachers.

Responding to criticism on social media, he said, “Social media is totally biased.”

Deputy CM Shivakumar, who was also present, said that traffic police had identified 132 sensitive traffic zones.

“We addressed 81 of these by April. We still have 41 more spots to work on,” he added.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.