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Flooding due to encroachments on lakes and drains

Last Updated 29 July 2016, 20:12 IST

Due to encroachment of lakes and rajakaluves, the worst nightmare of Bengaluru came true when rains pounded the city on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials say that three lakes in the city, Madiwala, Kodichikkanahalli and Kasavanahalli lakes, breached their banks, flooding the entire Madiwala, HSR Layout, Sarjapur and parts of Electronics City. Around 500 houses were flooded in Madiwala alone, damaging household articles, especially electronic and electric goods.

A similar situation prevailed at Kodichikkanahalli. The swollen tank breached its bank and water gushed towards Madiwala. On the way, it flooded some apartments and layouts, including the one which is alleged to have encroached the rajakaluve between Kodichikkanahalli and Madiwala Lake. Mayor B N Manjunath Reddy, with Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy and BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad, visited affected areas in Madiwala and Kodichikkanahalli.

Ramalinga Reddy, who is also BTM Layout MLA, said Madiwala lake has two waste weirs of which one is flowing well but the second one is choked due to the dumping of soil.

“The second waste weir is the major one, which led to floods in Madiwala. The forest department had dumped the soil there. I got the soil removed,’’ the Minister said.

There was also a compound wall blocking the flow of water from the first waste weir, which Ramalinga Reddy got demolished. Mayor Manjunath Reddy blamed the BDA for the flooding. “BDA reduced the width of rajakaluves in BTM Layout and Bommanahalli to less than half, say from 30 ft to 15 ft or less. Had the width been maintained, we would never had this kind of problem.”

A few apartments at Kodichikkanahalli came under the scanner for encroaching upon rajakaluves, which led to the flooding.

The Mayor said the apartments which have encroached on the rajakaluves have got a stay in the court due to which the Palike's hands are tied.

“We cannot comment on the courts’ granting stay. We would have demolished the building to free the rajakaluves if there was no stay,” said the Mayor.

The situation at Kodichikkanahalli was so grim that water and food were supplied in some layouts as all their belongings had submerged in water.

At Kasavanahalli near Sarjapur, the swollen tank breached the bank and flowed towards the next catchment area. However, due to a huge apartment on the rajakaluve, the water spread all over the place, flooding the surrounding places including the basement of the apartment.

Joint survey
In a joint survey by the revenue department and the BBMP, about 1,900-odd encroachments of rajakaluves were identified but so far more than 800 have been removed. Further, the survey of lakes in the city showed that out of 473 lakes in revenue records, only 100 odd lakes are visible today.

 

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(Published 29 July 2016, 20:12 IST)

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