Dangling live wires, flooded roads, lack of potable water conveyed the pathetic tale of residents of Krishnappa Garden in C V Ramanagar, behind Bagmane Tech Park. Prashanth Nair, a resident of Krishnappa Garden said the drain leading to the tennis court had not been desilted, which led to flooding.
Residents say a high tension wire under the flooded road and a transformer near the inundated area posed a danger. “We stopped moving around the area as soon as we noticed the wire while we were trying to wade through the water at around 1 pm,” Nair said.
Flooding is not uncommon in the area. “In November 2015 also there was flooding. At that time, the management of Bagmane had agreed to help build the drain. But they have not done so. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) too did not help. We had punctured a hole in the wall constructed on the drain to help the water to flow to the drain. But now the management has filled the hole and constructed another wall. This has left no room for the drain water to flow,” Nair said.
Learning about the residents’ grievances, councillor Shilpa Abhilash rushed to the spot at around 6 pm. They tried to help out, but were forced to return as it started raining again. They were also warned of the live high tension wires under the flooded areas, which forced them to back off. Reacting to this, N Manjunath Prasad, BBMP commissioner admitted that there were areas where drains were not of sufficient width and capacity to handle the heavy flow of water. “The BBMP is working towards improving them,” he said.