BENGALURU: A day after the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) cleaned flooded homes at Sai Baba Layout in Horamavu Ward of KR Puram assembly constituency, residents witnessed yet another flood on Saturday following moderate to heavy rains.
Neelufur Ahmed, a teacher from Prestige School spent Rs 10,000 on her sump motors and electrical work, only to have the house flooded again. “There’s about three inches of water and now I will have to arrange beds. This has been happening for the past ten years in many houses in this layout. Neither MLA Byrathi Basavaraj nor the BBMP officials are bothered about our plight,” said Ahmed and dared MLA and BBMP top officials to take a house and stay in the area if at all they are concerned.
Echoing the same, another resident opined that only courts can intervene and take up suo motu and direct officials to ensure the area is not flooded. “There are children, elderly and women here. If the issue is not addressed, there will be water-borne infections and mosquito-borne diseases and many will become victims,” said a senior citizen from the layout.
However, BBMP downplayed the flooding of the area on Saturday and said, the rain flooded only the streets and did not enter homes. Meanwhile, Bangalore Development Authority officials stated that the layout was developed illegally, with no authorisation from the BDA. “The development work like an additional vent below the railway bridge at the layout is being executed. At present, the storm water has only a 20-foot width area, causing flooding when water from the Hebbal-Nagawara valley upstream gushes during rains,” said a BDA official.