Indira Nagar Residents Protest By Sitting on Chairs On a Flooded Road Reading Newspaper with Tea

BENGALURU: Fed-up over the lackadaisical attitude of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to free their locality from flooding on Tuesday put-up chairs on road to read newspaper and have tea/snacks to express their anger against official apathy.

Several residential areas in Bengaluru city have been flooded owing to heavy rainfall lashing the city for the last couple of days and among them Indira Nagar is one locality affected by rain.

A couple of residents of Indira Nagar sat on the road reading newspapers and had tea along with snacks to draw the attention of officials concerned of BBMP. Their grouse against BBMP was that none of the officials concerned have initiated steps to resolve flooding of the drains leading to flooding in their locality.

The protesters stated “We have had snacks on the road since it is difficult to cook at home.”

A resident staging a protest stated BBMP officials have not initiated steps to resolve flooding of their locality since a decade. Despite numerous complaints to officials concerned, nothing substantial happened and the protest by sitting on a flood road was to draw attention since BBMP officials have turned blind to their civic problems.

A woman criticized the BBMP and stated ‘We have come on to the road since water from an overflowing drain entered their houses and with no choice we were on the road with cooking materials.’ She expressed fears of children catching infection over flooding.

Another resident in the protest said officials do come for inspection and assure to set things right but nothing substantial has happened since a decade.

The Indira Nagar residents stated water level was knee-deep on Monday and has receded a bit on Tuesday afternoon.

The situation in Sai Layout, a flooded locality in Bengaluru, was no different from Indira Nagar. Its resident Thomas said water entered his house and destroyed electronics items and bed. The Layout has been without power for a couple of days.

Thomas said since residents were unable to move out of their houses owing to flooding, officials concerned provided them with lunch and dinner on Monday along with drinking water.

In K.P. Agrahara of Gandhi Nagar Assembly seat in Bengaluru, residents complained that choked drains caused flooding in their locality.

A resident said he alerted Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dinesh Gundu Rao, representing Gandhi Nagar in Assembly, to desilt a drain in the vicinity and no steps were initiated to get the drain free from silt which led to flooding.

“Pleas were made to the MLA repeatedly but nothing happened,” said the residents apart from assurances from the MLA.