If CM Siddaramaiah’s day-tours of the city have proved anything, it is that there is no dearth of funds for giving Bengaluru the infrastructure it needs. Every tour ends with the CM making lofty announcements, which, so far, haven’t resulted in anything much. The roads remain riddled with potholes, lakes are encroached and every spell of heavy rain leaves the city flooded. So the pertinent question on everyone’s mind is: Where do all the funds go and will the Chief Minister’s recent tour of Bengaluru make any real difference?
The pothole conundrum
For the past year the state government and the BBMP have claimed that nearly Rs 1,000 crore has been allotted for road work. While Rs 700 crore has been allotted under the Nagarottana scheme, the Public Works Department (PWD) has been given Rs 252 crore to do its share of the job. But sadly, despite the BBMP maintaining that tenders have already been awarded to contractors, there is no sign of the roads being repaired or asphalted as yet.
Ask Mayor Manjunath Reddy, and he claims it will be done in the next three months. “Filling potholes is a continuous process. They are filled as and when they are formed. But we have to wait for the rains to stop to do the asphalting,” he contends. Point out that some of the major roads like Hosur Road, Mysuru Road and Bannerghatta Road are full of potholes even today, and he replies, unfazed, that the BBMP is determined to make Bengluru pothole-free. Tell him that former Bengaluru-in-charge minister, Ramalinga Reddy made similar claims, and he responds without batting an eyelid that the BBMP didn’t have funds in the past, but now tenders have been awarded for repairing the roads and it will be done.
Unwilling to take full responsibility for the poor condition of the roads, the Mayor notes that other agencies like BWSSB and BESCOM, which dig them up constantly for various reasons, have ruined them as well. While the civic agency continues to pass the buck, the pothole problem is getting worse by the day with bikers or their pillion riders losing their lives in accidents caused while avoiding them. But has this made an iota of difference to the BBMP’s resolve to rid the city of them? Going by the condition of the roads, the answer has to be an emphatic “no.”
Revenue officials must give list of encroachments, says BBMP
Except for a few drives, the removal of encroachments from around lakes and drains seems to have come to a halt. In fact, the Chief Minister has not taken any interest in the demolitions although a recent survey by the revenue department concluded there are 1,923 lake and drain encroachments in the city. The readily available data is only gathering dust.
Although the BBMP claims to have taken action in 820 locations, too little has been done too late. A BBMP official, however, claims the civic agency has failed to remove many of the encroachments as it does not have reports identifying them. “For the BBMP to take action, revenue officials must give a report identifying and confirming the encroachments. Although we submit a weekly report, the officials fail to respond. It’s a slow moving process as the officials are sluggish. Though they know there are encroachments, they do not act,” he says.
But sources reveal that most of the encroachments near lakes have been made by builders of apartment complexes with the connivance of officials themselves. “Most of the encroachments are in Bommanahalli zone where there are a chain of five lakes. But no action whatsoever has been taken to remove them,” they note.
Anxiety rules these areas
Kino Junction, Anepalya, Ejipura, HSR Layout, Puttnehalli and Deepanjali Nagar were some of the worst affected last monsoon, but nothing has been done since to arm them against a repeat of last year's flooding. Says Mr Krishnappa, a resident of Anepalya, “The last monsoon, our homes were flooded with sewage after a drain wall collapsed and we spent an entire night removing it with buckets. The BBMP workers did not even help us pump it out.”
The BBMP’s lack of preparedness has proved costly not just for low-lying areas. This year too the agency still hasn’t completed desilting of drains, essential to prevent flooding during the monsoon. While it has identified 224 vulnerable points, which are prone to flooding and has completed desilting in 141 locations, work is still underway at 83 major drains, and is unlikely to finish before June end, going by officials. So like every year the agency remains unprepared.
In the meanwhile, there have already been some close calls with a three-year-old girl surviving a wall collapse, several houses in Yelachenahalli going without power for three days after the collapse of a drain wall and nearly 50 cars floating in a basement flooded with rain water. While these should have served as a wake-up call, BBMP officials remain as lethargic as ever. Although drains in low-lying areas should have been de-silted by May, they seem to have no clue when the task will be completed even now.
One month and no action on NGT order
In a landmark judgement in May, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) imposed a new buffer zone of 75 metres for lakes and wetlands which will be a no-construction zone, as opposed to 30 metres of buffer zone. According to the tribunal directions, the final authority Ministry of Environment and Forests had to handover the survey work to the Lake Development Authority and a report had to be submitted within a month.
However, Central and State government officials have been tight-lipped about the survey since. While lake activists and experts have been demanding that a survey should be conducted on priority basis, there has been no development. “If the NGT order is implemented, the land will remain in the ownership of the concerned builder, but will have to be maintained as a landscape area. They don’t want the risk,” said a Bellandur lake activist.
Q&A with Manjunath Prasad, BBMP Commissioner
Even before the onset of monsoons, the city is flooded with rain related problems. Why the delay in preparedness?
Well, we can't say we were not prepared for the monsoon, as necessary measures were taken well in time. If you ask me what they are, we have set up 70 control rooms which attend to problems across all zones, divisions and sub-divisions. Vulnerable points were identified and necessary works were carried out. The BBMP is monsoon ready.
Flooding has been a major concern this year and the BBMP is still desilting drains. What caused the delay?
We must understand that all drains are designed in a particular way and each one has a limited capacity. The city has received 128 mm rainfall in South Bengaluru last week and it takes time for rain water to subside. Most importantly, large scale encroachments are the reason for flooding. Apartments, houses have come up on the middle of the drain. Such encroachments are causing flooding.
What action is BBMP taking to remove encroachments on lakes and drains?
We started a drive month ago and realised that most of the encroachments were done by residential apartment builders. We can’t make people vacate. Notices are being issued and the procedures are being followed.
Potholes are claiming lives in road accidents. Why is the BBMP still not fixing roads?
Filling potholes is a continuous process. During monsoons, we fix a road and there's no guarantee there will be no potholes thereafter. We take action when complaints come our way.
Any new measures to tackle monsoon miseries this year?
Whatever measures were need of the hour before the monsoons, they have been adopted. There's no lack of equipment or staff. In addition, advanced information on rainfall in different parts of the city was helping us deal with emergencies in a planned way.
