In B'luru, it's raining chaos

Three days of relentless rains have left Bengaluru in utter chaos with its denizens looking for answers to their worries emanating from dysfunctional infrastructure and defunct machinery. Water inundated several localities with lakes, especially in the northern parts, breaching their banks. People in Kendriya Vihar in Yelahanka and Sai Layout had to be rescued from their submerged homes while creepies and crawlies from flooded lakes robbed people of their sleep in scores of enclaves. Even as cars were seen negotiating their way through knee-deep waters, the social media showed images of rains offering an ‘enchanting view of cascading Manyata waterfall’ to audiences. Traffic snarls reduced mobility on important thoroughfares while the road to the Kempegowda International Airport had traffic jams with rows of vehicles stretching to over five kilometres. Overflowing rajakaluves submerged localities that came up on encroached shoulder lands.

The State government announced shutting down of schools on Wednesday; BMTC cancelled 300 bus trips while companies in the IT hubs allowed work-from-home for the week. It seems the city fathers have not learnt any lessons from the deluges that marked past years when even the elite localities in the IT hub were inundated. The rains had then etched to broad relief the reason for the deluge: lack of planning, encroachment of rajakaluves by posh malls and enclaves with high-end villas. The recent rains have provided ample evidence of posh enclaves such as Manyata Techpark having been euphemistically reclaimed from former lakes.