BBMP’s forecast for Bengaluru: Wet & stinking!

BENGALURU: Delay in desilting of drains, heaps of garbage mixed with rainwater and old trees that have not been pruned, all point to the fact that BBMP is ill-equipped to deal with monsoon, which is set to arrive in the next three days.

Though the civic agency has no contingency plan in place, so far, it has only managed to make announcements like gangmen and tractors will be provided for every ward. Even these measures were conspicuously missing last week, when rains battered Yelahanka. In many parts of the city, especially low-lying and problem-prone areas such as Madiwala, Anepalya, Agara, Bapujinagar, Shanthi Nagar, Kino Junction, Maruthi Nagar, the agency has only done minimal works.

It has not learnt any lessons from the last monsoons, when overflowing drains and waterlogged roads created chaos. While de-silting should have started in September and over now, the BBMP has only now taken up desilting of shoulder drains. Many areas still face the problem of irregular garbage clearance, which is expected to add to monsoon woes. The BBMP has failed to identify old and weak trees and prune them on a regular basis in areas such as Jayanagar, Basavanagudi and Malleswaram. Last week, 55 trees got uprooted in Yelahanka alone.

District-in-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy, who admitted that many zones still did not have necessary equipment, held the BBMP employees responsible for the failure. “The administrator has held frequent meetings with officials in every zone. Despite giving instructions, ward engineers have failed to buy equipment such as tree cutters, saws, among others. The officials have failed the BBMP by not implementing works,” he said.

He, however, maintained that separate funds have been allocated for de-silting of drains and contractors would come forward if there were exclusive funds set aside for de-silting. “De-silting of shoulder drains is in progress and will be complete within a few weeks. This apart, in association with the Traffic police, we have identified around 100 points where repair works like fixing broken drains, cementing and other works should be taken up. Also, over 130 places which are prone to monsoon problems have been identified and measures will be taken to avert the problems,” he added.