BENGALURU: The State government is spending close to Rs 650 a rat, to make Vidhana Soudha, Vikas Soudha and a few other government offices in the city rodent-free.
Rat menace is rampant in Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha, Vishveshwariah Towers and multi-storied building located on Ambedkar Veedhi. This is because the spacious lawn outside these buildings has thousands of burrows that house rodents, mice and bandicoots. They enter these building premises damaging computer cables, air condition wires, UPS connections and even paper files.
In the last five years since 2010, the government has handed over the task of catching rats to a private agency. They have been paid Rs 19.34 lakh so far to catch rodents, Chief Minister Siddaramiah stated in a written reply to JD(S) MLC Patel Shivaram’s question in the Council. The CM said these agencies catch 50 rodents on an average every month. This means, the State government is spending `644 to catch a rodent.
A senior officer from the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms of Karnataka said that they have given the tender to Sri Ganga Facility and Management Services to catch bandicoots and rodents. Each building has one person to maintain it all the time. These people will be visiting these buildings every day. The official added they have mosquito, and cockroach problem too. But rats are the biggest problems. “They catch rodents using traps and kill them using poison,” he said.