Rains catch BBMP officials napping… time and again

Umar Sharieef | NT

Bengaluru: Two more weeks, and the Southwest Monsoon will arrive in Bengaluru. Almost like a sample of what the rains will be like during the wet months, the city has been experiencing pre-monsoon showers. While that has given relief from the scorching summer heat, to our dismay, the unpreparedness of the BBMP at handling heavy rains is also exposed.

Having been offered repeated assurances that the civic body was doing enough to ensure a troublefree monsoon season while spending thousands of crores of rupees for it, the patience of the IT City’s residents snapped when the life of a 22-year-old was snuffed out during Sunday’s downpour. They want BBMP officials to stand up and be accounted.

The police have identified the victim as Bhanurekha, a resident of Vijayawada, who was visiting Bengaluru with five members of her family. Tragically, their car got submerged in the underpass at KR Circle. Thankfully, a relief team managed to rescue the remaining members of the family. BBMP officials have earned the public wrath, which now questions their preparedness.

Questioning the need for grade separators like underpasses and flyovers, which are put in place after PCU or per car unit as the last resort to measure the traffic infrastructure, Manasai, a Twitter user, claimed that the underpass is a failure as experts concerned had divided ideas when the design first came up. Besides making fun of the conditions of the poor infrastructure in the city, a few have also asked where the money paid as tax goes.

Anubha tweeted, “I was trying to make a joke to calm myself down yesterday for being on this flooded MG Road, but I don’t think I’d have the strength to do this anymore after yesterday’s incident. Is the tax money paid not enough to give us infrastructure worth living on?” Anubha expressed her frustration on Twitter, sharing her experience of attempting to lighten the mood with a joke while stranded on the flooded MG Road.

However, she admitted that the incident had drained her strength to continue such efforts. She questioned whether the taxes paid were truly sufficient to provide the citizens with a liveable infrastructure. Sanjeev alleged that the incident happened because of a corrupt system managed by money-hungry myopic bureaucrats shepherded by idiotic political bosses building unscientific and inadequate faulty infrastructure.

“When will this apathy end? We are in 2023 with a young vibrant population with tall aspirations,” he asked. Sanjeev voiced his criticism, attributing the incident to the corrupt system, driven by “money-hungry and short-sighted bureaucrats” who were supported by “foolish political leaders”. He wondered when this apathy would end, considering the youthful and ambitious population of 2023.

Amidst concerns about disaster mitigation and preparedness, Subramani (name changed), an official from BBMP, assured News Trail that the department is actively engaged in disaster preparations for the upcoming monsoon season. He emphasised the department's close monitoring and ongoing efforts to make the necessary arrangements.

However, the official chose not to provide further information in response to additional questions. Thirunavukarasu, a retired PWD official from Tamil Nadu, criticised the BBMP officials for their failure to implement preventive measures. He pointed out that they should have installed oil-filled motors instead of electric ones to pump out the water from underpasses and prevent flooding. According to him, this negligence in checking vulnerable areas before the monsoon season is a failure on the officials' part.