With two more months of monsoon left, several councillors sought to know how prepared the BBMP was to tackle emergencies and prevent flooding.
Mayor R. Sampath Raj told the council on Monday that residents of the city should not be put through hardship and urged the councillors to submit, in writing, to the jurisdictional chief engineers and executive engineers about the emergency work to be taken up, especially in low-lying areas.
Opposition Leader Padmanabha Reddy sought to know the quantum of silt removed from the drains and where it had been dumped, whiles other councillors sought the status of construction of the retaining walls of the storm water drains and clearing of encroachments.
BBMP’s Chief Engineer (Storm Water Drains) Bette Gowda claimed that 21 lakh cubic metres of silt had been removed from drains across the city. He said that flooding of many areas a couple of years ago was caused by siltation at outlets of all four valleys. A tender to take up dredging in these outlets for ₹43 crore was in process, he said. He added that strengthening of the retaining wall of storm-water drains measuring around 390 km had been completed.
Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said 1,125 encroachments had been cleared. He said the BBMP faced issues of deputing surveyors to identify encroachments. The 10 surveyors, who were deputed, had completed the survey in 434 survey numbers coming under five zones, he said. “We have now asked them to submit certified copies of the survey sketches, besides marking the properties,” he said.