KR Pete vendors suffer loss of materials worth Rs 1 crore

Mandya: Vendors in KR Pete in Mandya district are in a state of extreme worry after they lost goods and materials cumulatively worth Rs 1 crore following inundation of low-lying market areas in the night on Saturday. KR Pete recorded incessant rain on Saturday, exposing the poor infrastructure in the low-lying areas, where water gushed into homes and shops. Clothes, mobile phones and provisions at groceries were among the casualties of the gushing waters.
Vendors of garment stores had to hang all the wet clothes to dry at convention centres. Many of them pointed to the stains on the clothes, left behind by the sewage that rushed inside the stores along with the rainwater, and said that they could no longer be sold.
Mahendra Patel, a vendor of a garment store in KR Pete, said, “New clothes at various stores worth nearly Rs 80 lakh have either been completely destroyed or stained by sewage. Had the drains not been clogged, rainwater would not have gushed into our stores and destroyed our stock. The government departments concerned for the upkeep of the drains must take cognisance of this and compensate us.”
The vendors alleged that the drains in KR Pete town had been constructed in an unscientific manner, not to mention the slow pace at which work on the project had been going on for the past 10 years. They also lashed out at the civic authorities for neglecting to clear the clogged drains.
Officials in the KR Pete town municipality, however, blamed the vendors and residents for connecting the drainage pipes to their homes. “Vendors must not install pipes between drains and shops or houses. When there is heavy rain, these pipes turn into obstacles for flow of sewage, and the drains get clogged,” said an official.