Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai blames Congress for current Bengaluru mess

This comment comes in the backdrop of the civic apathy in India’s IT capital that has left large portions of the city under water

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday blamed the “mal-administration” by the previous Congress government for the current mess in Bengaluru.

Large parts of Bengaluru are waterlogged due to incessant rains. (Basavaraj Bommai (Facebook))

He pinned the blame on Congress for giving permission of construction of (commercial) structures.

This comment comes in the backdrop of the civic apathy in India’s IT capital that has left large portions of the city under water.

“In these challenging conditions, we are working. Secondly, this (flooding and other problems in Bengaluru) is done because of maladministration and totally unplanned administration of the previous Congress government. This is the result of the maladministration of the government. They (Congress) have given permission right, left, centre (for construction) in the lakes, tank bunds, buffer zones, that is the reason for this. They never maintained this. Now we have taken it as a challenge,” Bommai said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has held power in the BBMP, the city corporation, since 2010 and the party has been in power from 2008-13 and since 2019 in the state.

Large parts of Bengaluru, especially Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli and the east zone of the city are waterlogged with disrupted traffic movement and life thrown out of gear for residents and office goers.

According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, Bengaluru witnessed nearly 100mm of rainfall in the 24-hour-period, ending at 8:30am on Tuesday.

“I have given ₹1,500crore for all this rainwater storm drain. Yesterday, I have given another ₹300crore to remove all the encroachments and do the pakka (permanent) structure on Rajakaluve (storm water drains) so that in the future there will be no impediment or any bottleneck for flow of water,” the chief minister added.

Tractors, earth movers and boats have been deployed across several localities in Bengaluru to help rescue residents as well as ferry people wanting to cross roads to reach their office spaces near Outer Ring Road (ORR), the 17-km stretch between Silk Board and KR Puram, which houses some of the biggest global corporations and one of the biggest technology corridors in the city.

The rains in Bengaluru and other parts of the state have brought life to a standstill as homeowners rue the loss of their property and belongings while the government and administration blame each other for the mess in a city.

“If we look at rainfall data from 1971, it is the second highest rainfall in September after 1998. But this is one of the wettest monsoons in the history of Bengaluru,” Tushar Girinath, the chief commissioner of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP, the city’s civic body) said on Monday, HT reported.

He added that normal rainfall between 1-5 September is around 25mm and there are localities which have received between 150-300mm rainfall.

Bengaluru received 148.5mm rainfall in the 24 hours ending Monday morning, making it one of the wettest this season

The drinking water supply has been hit in Bengaluru after at least two of the four pumphouses in Mandya district’s TK Halli reservoir were inundated after heavy rain on Sunday night.

“Yesterday I visited the pumphouses in TK Halli in Mandya district which supplies water to Bengaluru. The Bheemeshwari river (water) has entered into the pump house and two pump houses have been affected. One of them is completely dewatered (drained) and by tonight, 330MLD of water supply will start. Another 550MLD of water will start by this afternoon. It will take another two days to clear that,” Bommai said.

In the meantime, instructions have been given to officials to activate 8000 borewells under the BWSSB and another 4000 under BBMP. He said that tankers will be deployed where there are no borewells.