BBMP chief gets clean chit

CM says Commissioner should not be blamed for everything

“Dr Subramanya is doing a good job as the BBMP commissioner. He is working for the last eight-ten months day and night for the City. He should not be blamed for everything,” the CM told reporters after meeting Abhishek’s parents Prakash and Bharathi and sister Divya at their Hennur Road residence on Friday afternoon.

Abhishek was swept away on Sunday night in a storm-water drain near his residence right in front of his mother when they were returning home. Even after five days, no one could trace the boy, who is feared dead, while the government has roped in Army to find the body.

The CM said the parents of the boy have asked him for better education for their daughter Divya who is studying in seventh standard.

“The loss the mother has suffered cannot be compensated. I pray God to give the family strength to bear the loss. We have assured them that we will bear the burden of her education and in this regard we have decided to deposit Rs one lakh in her account so that there will be no hurdle for her education in future,” the CM said.

Government job

When the CM was asked what the government has decided regarding Prakash’s demand for a government job, he said, “Our men are working day and night to find out the body. We have even roped in MEG to trace the body. Let us wait for the body, following which we will decide what to do next.”

Speaking to media for the first time after the tragedy, Bharathi on Friday recalled the horror that unfolded on the rainy Sunday night. “It is a horrific and painful event which I cannot forget till I reach the grave. I pray this should never happen to any mother on this earth,” a weeping Bharathi told reporters when they asked what exactly had happened on the fateful night.

On Sunday night, when there was heavy rainfall, Bharathi was coming home with six-year-old Abhishek when they found water overflowing the pavement right on the culvert of the stormwater drain.

The mother was first to cross the pavement and the son who was walking beside her also put his foot at the place from where the water was overflowing. “I had no inkling that there was no pavement slab on the culvert where my son had put his foot. Within no time, he slipped inside and vanished,” said the mother and burst into tears.

Abhishek’s body could not be found while the BBMP dug an entire stretch of around ten kilometres of drain from Lokesh Tent Road to Nagawara Lake. 

BBMP officials now suspect that the body might have been swept away up to the Ramapura lake. But the weeds and the thick layer of silt are big obstacles.

Army yet to get official requisition

The government is yet to make an official requisition to the Indian Army to search for Abhishek’s body.

Col S Kemparaj of the Karnataka and Kerala Sub Area of the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) said the BBMP Chief Executive Engineer discussed the matter with the Army sub-area commander but there was no official requisition as yet.

The Bangalore Deputy Commissioner will have to give the Army a requisition. “This implies that the resources of the state have been exhausted and therefor assistance from the Army has been sought,” the Army officer added. Now the BBMP has sent a letter to the Karnataka Home Department to ask for Army’s help in searching Abhishek’s body, stating that the BBMP lacks the skill to desilt the Ramapura Lake and Army alone can do that. The MEG will have the tough job desilting and cleaning the weeds in Ramapura Lake, which is spread in many acres.  It will cost crores of rupees besides massive human resource. “It will be one of the toughest jobs for the MEG,” said the BBMP sources.