Boy washed away in Vrushabhavati

A 13-year-old boy, who went to retrieve a ball fallen into the Arkavathi stream overflowing due to heavy rain, was washed away in the Vrushabhavati River on Friday.

Police said that Aravind of Hampinagar, a seventh standard student, was playing cricket near the stream. When the ball fell into it, he got into it to retrieve the ball and was swept away by the strong current.

The BBMP staff tried to trace the boy till late evening, but to no avail.

Trees uprooted

The rain in the last three days uprooted 38 trees, including 16 on Friday alone.
Two cars and the roof of a building at Gayatrinagar were damaged, but no one was  injured. The BBMP staff had a harrowing time in clearing the trees fallen on the roads.

Kavitha K, owner of a damaged house, said she called the Palike control room for help several times as soon as her tenants alerted her about the incident, but none responded.

The slush has aggravated traffic woes where the roads were blocked by the uprooted trees.

Girish Lakkanna, a resident said: “The BBMP needs to have a mechanism to take precautions against tree fall during heavy rains.” He urged the Palike officers to take steps to remove silt from the choked  drains to check rainwater inundating roads.