JOIN USWeekend washed out, residents busy draining water
Mayor promises action against apartments encroaching SWDs
Mayor B N Manjunath Reddy on Monday vowed to act sternly against apartments encroaching upon the Rajakaluves (stormwater drains (SWDs)/canals), which led to the flooding in the city on Thursday and Friday.
At least three lakes breached their bank, submerging many areas, following torrential rains on the nights of Thursday and Friday. The Madivala ward, which the Mayor represents, was among the worst-affected areas as the Madivala lake swelled.
The Mayor, along with Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, chief secretary Arvind Jadhav and BBMP commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad, visited the flood affected areas in Madivala, Kodichikkanahalli and Bilekahalli, where on Saturday the Bilekahalli lake breached its banks.
Manjunath Reddy told the officials that BBMP had been lethargic in pursuing cases of lake and stormwater drain encroachment in the court. As a result, the encroachers got a stay in the court.
“There is a very slack effort in dealing with cases of encroachment. Those who constructed buildings on the Rajakaluves manage to get a stay. We will video-shoot all such buildings and present the footage in court as evidence. These structures must be removed if we want to prevent flooding in future,” said the Mayor.
Overflowing continued in Madivala and Kodichikkanahalli continued, although the level subsided substantially.
On Friday, on Ramalinga Reddy’s direction, a compound wall and soil dumped at the waste weir of the lake were removed. As a result, water level receded. Fishing continued in Madivala and surrounding places.
Retaining wall leads to flooding
Kodichikkanahalli is a low-lying area in south east Bengaluru and water-stagnation during monsoon is nothing new or residents.
“When Arakere and Hulimavu lakes overflow, the excess water flows downstream of Madiwala Lake and then goes to Agara Lake. Due to the construction of a retaining wall, the interconnecting channels located between the three layouts in Kodichikkanahalli was blocked leading to flooding.
While one storm water drain has not been de-silted before monsoon, work on the other drain was stopped due to a legal dispute. If it rains further, there is going to be flood-like situation again unless provision is made for the free flow of water downstream,” says 69-year-old Sethu Madhav, who has been staying in Anugraha since a decade.