Monsoon brings along floods of misery here

Monsoon brings along floods of misery here
The Times of India

Bangalore: The heavy rain that spelt havoc in several low lying areas around Airport Road recently, is just another reminder of the unending tale of woes in this area.

While buildings and commercial establishments come up unabated, thanks to the commercial lure of the area, little attention is being paid to the monsoon menace in the adjoining areas.

Every year, the monsoon spells misery for the residents of Domlur, Murugeshpalya, Vinayaknagar, Shastrinagar, Reddy Palya, K R Nagar Rameshnagar, G M Palya and surrounding layouts.

Being largely unplanned civic areas, houses here appear to be built amidst a huge dumping yard — of debris, domestic garbage and sometimes carcasses.

Storm water drains measuring nearly 12 feet from HAL from the east, NAL from the west and Tippasandra area from the north of Murugeshpalya layout are abruptly connected to onefoot wide domestic drains, resulting in perpetual overflow of filth in the drains of Vinayakanagara and Murugeshpalya.

Many are badly planned layouts without proper roads, water and sanitary connections, “Earlier, roads were laid lower than the houses.

But now, repeated, but unscientific asphalting has raised the level of the road and made the flooding problem worse. There is perpetual knee-deep water surging into our homes. Residents have to vacate their homes during the monsoon,” said a resident.

A few residents have begun raising temporary walls to shield the rain water. “But this can only partly prevent the muddy floods. All we need is a proper drainage system to prevent these floods,” said a senior resident.

“The BCC, which took over this area from the Sanitary Board nearly 10 years ago, had allotted funds to the tune of Rs 1.26 crore to channelise and regulate the drains, but little has been done to provide solace,’’ decry the longsuffering residents.

They have had to bear with the stench, pig and vulture menace and the sewage, particularly industrial effluents entering their homes.

Angry residents, who felt that the improvement charges and the property tax that they have been paying were going to wrong hands, said this was nothing new and the BCC officials have only managed to fool the residents with their repair works.