Three zonal in-charges get on job, oversee rain-readiness in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: A day after eight cabinet ministers were appointed as in-charge for each BBMP zone to deal with rain-related emergencies, three of them held meetings with their respective officials on Monday and took stock of the situation. Mahadevapura zone in-charge Byrathi Basavaraj  directed the officials to be on alert to tackle the situation. However, he was left red faced as MLAs, who are part of the special task force, gave a miss to the meeting.

Speaking to reporters at Vidhana Soudha, Basavaraj claimed that the situation was much better in his zone compared to other rain-hit areas. However, Sai Layout and Nagpura Layout have been impacted, but stressed that there was no encroachment of stormwater drains at Nagpura Layout. “At present, drain-widening works are being done, and since silt was cleared in advance in the zone, the impact of the rain was not much,” he said adding that following the direction of the CM, houses that were impacted are being compensated.

On MLAs giving the meeting a miss, a visibly upset minister said that the MLAs were intimated about the meeting beforehand. “I don’t know why they did not attend the meeting.”  He, however, clarified the MP of the area was not informed and the first meeting was called in urgency. 

Similarly, Excise Minister K Gopalaiah held a meeting with officials of Bommanahalli zone and directed them to be on alert. They were instructed to ensure that the drains are cleared of silt to avoid flood waters entering homes and overflowing onto roads during heavy rains. East Zone in-charge Dr C N Ashwath Narayan issued warnings to engineers and directed them to clear the silt within 20 days. 

He held a video conference with the officials concerned and told them that 22 areas like Neelasandra, Frazer Town and Sanjaynagar come under ‘Red’ zone as these flood during heavy rain. The officials informed the minister that in just two days last week, the zone received 11 cm of rainfall that resulted in many homes and apartment complexes getting marooned.He also asked the officials to compensate the homes that were impacted at the earliest.