BENGALURU: After the horrifying Hulimavu Lake breach on Sunday in which 800 houses were flooded, a blame game among the civic authorities has started even as the main culprit is yet to be identified.
Revenue minister R Ashoka, who visited the area on Monday said, “I want the police to start working on the case and get the culprits arrested immediately. If we don’t take serious action now, such acts will continue.”
On Sunday, when a contractor was carrying out work, a small opening in the lake bund was made which caused the breach, resulting in water gushing out, flooding homes and displacing hundreds, although no casualties were reported. On Monday, BBMP officials blamed the BWSSB, saying they were carrying out Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) work there, which must have caused the bund to breach. However, BWSSB officers denied the allegations, saying they had not carried out any works.
Ashoka, Housing Minister V Somanna, and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya inspected the area and questioned both the authorities on the incident, and visited the rehabilitation centres where victims were housed, and addressed their concerns. The ministers and MP expressed anger at the contractor who had carried out the work and asked police to start working on the case. The police said that a contractor named Karthik was carrying out the work. However, it is yet to be verified if he is a private contractor or from the BBMP.
Noticing a visible lack of coordination among the civic agencies, Surya decided to put forward a request to the state government, asking the chief minister to enact a legislation mandating all civic agencies to work together. “There is a lack of coordination among civic agencies. This is the third lake which has breached (in 45 days) and it is not a joke. All the civic bodies should work together. Structural reforms need to be made,” said Surya.
bbmp has no clue
When asked about the blame game between the civic agencies, BBMP Commissioner Anil Kumar said, “We do not know who has carried out the work. The lakes come under us. We will look into the security measures of protecting the lake.”
Rs 50K COMPENSATION
“The state government has decided to give Rs 40,000 to each affected family, while the BBMP said it will give Rs 10,000. This apart, till the time they are staying in the shelter, we will make sure their food requirements are met. We will also give the people grocery kits which would suffice for a week,” said Ashoka. Somanna said that compensation of Rs 5 lakh will be given to owners whose legitimate houses are hit.
SOMANNA LOSES COOL
Some BBMP officials claimed that the lake breach must have happened with the Sewage Treatment Plant work being carried out by BWSSB. On hearing this, minister Somanna immediately visited the STP, but the engineer concerned, Nithyanand Kumar, was not there. Somanna called and asked him angrily, “What work have you been carrying out here? BBMP officials and the local people here say the lake breach happened because of the STP work. How can you carry out such works which have caused such a huge impact on the lives of people? Action will be taken against you.” While the engineer told him that they have not carried out any work which is affecting the lake, Somanna didn’t seem convinced. He asked the police to investigate the matter and told Nithyanand to give him a full report.
SITUATION UNDER CONTROL
On Monday, BBMP built a temporary bund to stop the flow of water. However, slight leakage of water continued. It also cleared the waterlogged roads.
MEASURES TAKEN BY BBMP
BBMP has taken measures to clear out water from some of the places and had given food and clothes to the vicitms on Monday. This apart, the BBMP wildlife rescue team played a role by rescuing 16 snakes like cobras and Russel Viper from people’s homes and surrounding areas till the afternoon. It had also set up separate toilets for men and women near the shelters. Fogging started in places where water had receded.
SUNDAY INCIDENT
The incident on Sunday occurred when a contractor carrying out work near the lake, had made a small opening in the lake bund which led to the breach where the water gushed into many houses affecting the people in localities like BTM Layout, RR layout, Krishna layout, Royal Residency and Avani Shringer
will file defamation case: BWSSB
BWSSB Chairman Tushar Girinath on Monday reacted to the allegations against the board. “All these allegations against the BWSSB are false. I condemn them and will even file defamation case. We have been working on the construction of the sewage treatment plant upstream of the lake and 99% work is complete. If any digging had to happen, it would have been done two years back. I do not know who has used the earthmover and damaged the lake. The matter is under investigation,” he said.
MEDICINES given to patients
A team of health and family welfare doctors working jointly with the BBMP team are working in shifts to take care of the medical needs of the patients. One of the doctor said that they attended to children and adults with fever, cold and severe body pain.