Debate on Bengaluru's waterlogging problems continues | In tweets

Days after Bengaluru saw severe waterlogging after heavy rain, the debate on the city infrastructure rumbles on.

Bengaluru social media users continue to debate the quality of the city's infrastructure amid heavy rain that led to severe waterlogging and flooding in several areas and also caused traffic congestion.

Bengaluru fell on its knees after an unprecedented amount of rain waterlogged and flooded its roads.

Padma Shri awardee TV Mohandas Pai tweeted tagging prime minister Narendra Modi, "... Sir we need your intervention! These are citizen views! We are high taxpayers and we get such bad governance, @AmitShah @JPNadda We need Governance reforms, 5 city corporations, better project management.”

Many agreed; one Twitter user said, "Never in the history of Bengaluru has civic administration been this bad. Major red flags that are being continuously ignored. Citizens do not fall under any priority. It's sure to hit the govt hard & rightly so. Deaths due to poor administration are unpardonable."

Karnataka overall recorded over 70 deaths within a period of two months from June in coastal districts in rain-related incidents.

Traffic cops stepped up to the plate, wading through ankle-length water to guide citizens through a safe commute. Bengaluru's Outer Ring Road (ORR) became an infamous stretch this week, with flooded roads stopping traffic for kilometres.

HSR Layout Traffic Police kept citizens in the loop by tweeting updates on the ORR, while working to clear the rainwater.

"On this day, there is less waterlogging near the Ecospace on the Outer Ring Road and smooth movement of vehicles,” they tweeted on Friday, posting a video that showed the water had drained from the road.

Dr Deepak Krishnamurthy, a senior interventional cardiologist at the Sakra World Hospital, posted a picture of a black KIA car in a ditch. "This is (the) fate of tax payer money. Obviously the @BBMPCOMM @CMofKarnataka... no one cares about the plight of the common man. Contractors are making big time money and doing substandard work. @ArvindLBJP,” he tweeted.

“I think all Bangaloreans should withhold paying property tax for one year as protest. Not even 10% roads of Bangalore are in drivable condition. And we pay one of the highest road tax in the country. Most roads are perpetually dug up for some reason or the other and no one bothers to repair them. Even when they do, it is so substandard that it doesn't stay for a few weeks,” he added.

“Most underpasses become lakes when it rains even for an hour. Dirt and garbage everywhere. Pathetic living conditions,” he further tweeted.

Meanwhile Congress leader Kavitha Reddy shared a video in which the speaker listed four must-visit places in the state for viewing rivers and waterfalls in the monsoon: Mekedatu, Chunchi falls, HSR Layout and Bellandur.

While Mekedatu and Chunchi falls are tourist attractions, Bengaluru's HSR Layout and Bellandur are residential areas that see flooding every rainy season.

“Who did this? creative one indeed... To see the River or Water Falls we don't have to go far!” Reddy said in the tweet.

Netizens were outraged over one tweet that showed the time difference between taking a car and walking from Mahadevapura to Bellandur: one minute. “Walking from Mahadevapura to Bellandur will only take you 1 min longer today,” the Twitter user wrote.

Many have pointed fingers at the local civic body, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), for poor administration of the city. The BBMP is accused of allegedly neglecting infrastructure and traffic woes of the Karnataka capital, which came to light after rain threw life out of gear this week.