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Bengaluru gets highest rainfall in 42 years; case against BESCOM after 23-year-old dies of electrocution

Bengaluru gets highest rainfall in 42 years; case against BESCOM after 23-year-old dies of electrocution

Sep 6, 2022 - 17:30
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Bengaluru gets highest rainfall in 42 years; case against BESCOM after 23-year-old dies of electrocution

Bengaluru: Streets under knee-deep water and incessant rain continue to wreak havoc in India’s IT capital Bengaluru in Karnataka. Tractors that have become the mode of transport is ploughing through inundated localities ferrying people.

Heavy rain showers lashed Bengaluru on the night of 5 September. The situation in several parts of rain battered city including Yemalur, Rainbow Drive layout, Sunny Brooks Layout, Marathahalli continued to remain the same today with waterlogged roads, houses and vehicles partially submerged.

Office goers were forced to take tractor rides to reach to work with most of them travelling from Yemalur area of Bengaluru, which is near HAL airport.

Employees of Wipro, Amazon, Swiggy, Goldman Sachs and Flipkart and other companies based out in Bengaluru were forced to work from home given the waterlogging across India’s tech hub.

Not just officer goes, school students too had to cross the submerged streets on tractors. "I came by tractor as roads are all submerged in water, also our vehicles are under water... I have exams from tomorrow, so I have to go to school," a girl dressed in school uniform said.

"Water has not receded, as there was rain once again last night (Monday), in fact I feel it has increased. I have to go to the office, kids have schools, and I somehow used a tractor today. Request the government and authorities to do something and restore normalcy," said an office goer.

"This was the highest rainfall in the last 42 years. All the 164 tanks in Bengaluru are filled to the brim," Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

Meanwhile, several private schools have declared holidays and have switched to online teaching for some days, while many offices have suggested that employees work from home.

Power supply has been affected largely in Sarjapur and many other area in east Bengaluru.

Karnataka rains: Political parties play blame game

Bommai faulted the "maladministration and unplanned administration" of the previous Congress governments in the state for the present situation of Bengaluru and insisted only two zones bore the brunt of rains although a picture was being painted as if entire city was struggling.

Slamming the previous Congress governments in Karnataka, he said that they had given permissions for construction activities "right-left-centre" in the lake areas, on the tank bunds and buffer zones.

"They had never thought of maintaining the lakes, he said and hastened to add he has now taken up a challenge to set things rights and had allocated Rs 1,500 crore for development of stormwater drains. Lot of encroachments are also being cleared," CM Bommai said.

"Karnataka, especially Bengaluru has not received unprecedented heavy rain...for the last 90 years such rain has not been recorded. All the tanks are full and are overflowing, some of them have breached, and there have been continuous rains, every day it is raining," the chief minister said.

Talking to media, Bommai said an image was being created as if the entire city is facing difficulties, which was not the case.

"Basically the issue lies in two zones, particularly the Mahadevapura zone for reasons such as presence of 69 tanks in that small area and almost all of them have either breached or are overflowing. Secondly, all establishments are in low lying areas, and the third is encroachments," he listed out.

His government has taken it as a "challenge" to restore normalcy and engineers and workers and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams are working round the clock.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala in a tweet said: "Your promise to make Bengaluru a world-class city with modern infrastructure is from Vachanaveli @BSBommai? Even if you look up, water, flood. Is this @BJP4Karnataka the proud Bengaluru built by the government?"

Meanwhile, Biotechnology industry veteran Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has termed the rain havoc in Bengaluru as "devastating" and said the city has never faced flooding at such a scale.

Both the government and developers need to take collective responsibility to address waterlogging, the executive chairperson of Bengaluru-headquartered biopharmaceuticals company, Biocon said.

23-year-old dies due to electrocution, family registers case against BESCOM

A 23-year-old woman, who used to work as a receptionist at a private firm, died due to electrocution following heavy rains in Bengaluru. The family of Akhila has registered a case of death due to negligence against Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials.

Akhila died in Whitefield Main Road due to electrocution on Monday night. Police said that when she was returning to her home in the Sarjapura area on her scooter, she lost balance near Mahira Bakery around 9:30 pm and fell.

"She lost her balance and touched an electric pole and then she was electrocuted. It happened on the main road," Whitefield Deputy Commissioner of Police S Girish said.

Based on a complaint filed by Akhila's parents, a case under Section 304 A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for causing death due to negligence has been registered against BESCOM and the BBMP at the Whitefield police station, a police official said.

More rains in Bengaluru

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rainfall till Wednesday, 7 September, 2022, for the IT hub of India.

The weather department has predicted heavy rains in south and north interior Karnataka for the next four days.

The Karnataka government has released Rs 300 crore to remove all encroachments and do a pucca structure along the storm water drains and for the infrastructure, to make sure that there are no impediments and bottleneck in the flow of water.

"Now I have taken it up as a challenge. I have given Rs 1,500 crores for development of storm water drains," CM Bommai said.

Bengaluru's ring road turns into lake

Massive water logging has turned the outer ring road of Bengaluru completely inundated. The road has turned into a lake after incessant rainfall and fences of the water bodies gave way, with fencing breaking and forcing water to gush out into the city.

Major reason behind flooding in Bengaluru 

In November last year, heavy rain left Bengaluru flooded, very much in a similar way as now. But why is Bengaluru submerged whenever it receives showers.

Notably, the topography of the city is characterised by a series of well-defined valleys which radiate from a ridge and fall gradually in all directions.

The four major valleys are Vrishabhavathi valley, Koramangala valley, Challaghatta valley and Hebbal valley and the lakes were built across them.

But with rapid urbanisation in the city, the natural canals have been blocked by construction layouts, residential apartments and academic institutions.

With inputs from agencies

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