Death of techie: BBMP officials must be held accountable

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is solely to blame for the death of a 23-year-old woman, Bhanu Rekha, in Bengaluru when the vehicle in which she was travelling, along with her family, got submerged in the water-logged K R Circle underpass following heavy rains on Sunday. Fortunately, other members of the family survived, but the death of the young woman will haunt them for a long time. While flooding of roads has become a common phenomenon during monsoon, in this case, like in many others, the tragedy was caused by the sheer negligence and callousness of the civic body, and the monsoon hasn’t even set in yet. All it takes is just one rain to throw the city completely out of gear, mainly due to the failure of the BBMP to prepare it for the monsoon. Rainwater floods the streets in several areas, dozens of trees get uprooted, and houses in low-lying areas get inundated. Most underpasses in the city are unscientifically designed and built, and the one at K R Circle has been prone to flooding. Yet, the BBMP was caught napping. The police, too, failed to seal the entry into the underpass, as they should have as soon as water begun to accumulate in it. In fact, vehicles were seen trying to negotiate through the waters even after the unfortunate incident and it was only providence that more lives were not lost.

Generally, it is the same set of areas in the city that get flooded every year, and all that the BBMP has to do is to take corrective steps, including desilting drains in these areas, ahead of the monsoon rains. After a prod from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, BBMP has said it would inspect 18 underpasses and ensure that water-logging does not occur. But does the BBMP need instructions from the Chief Minister to do a routine job? Of course, the concrete roads that prevent the percolation of water, illegal constructions that have disturbed the natural contours of the city, and the city’s vanishing lakes all contribute to flooding, but who is responsible for these? The BBMP again.

The flooding of the city and the tragedies resulting from it will continue to occur year after year, as it has since 2015, especially given that climate change is causing changes in the rain patterns and it is expected that extreme events will occur regularly. The BBMP and its officials are expected to plan ahead and implement measures to mitigate their effects. Clearly, they have failed to do their job so far. Those whose negligence led to Sunday’s tragedy must be publicly held accountable and made to pay. Else, the civic body will never learn.