CMC areas are worst hit

CMC areas are worst hit
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The incessant rainfall in last three days has exposed the inefficiency of the civic bodies, especially the City Municipal Councils (CMC) and Town Municipal Councils.

Major flooding occurred in K R Puram, Yelahanka, Bommanahalli and Mahadevapura CMCs.

The deluge in these areas is not caused by rains alone but also by bad planning and the poor drainage system.

Despite the not-so-good fund allocations for these civic bodies, the development in these areas has been phenomenal.

Over 80 per cent of the IT/BT development of Bangalore has occured in CMC/TMC areas. But the civic bodies have failed to provide even basic civic amenities like roads and drains.

The consequent fallout of intensive commercialisation of these areas has been that many private properties have encroached on to storm water drains.

While the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) has been taking up desilting of the drains, its town cousins have neglected the drains.

The BCC remodelling works do not extend beyond its jurisdiction while the drains do.

The flow spills over as the width is suddenly constricted in CMC areas and to make matters worse, buildings have encroached upon them, said a CMC official.

Further, most buildings in these areas are on the tank bed.

‘‘The civic body allows construction of buildings in low lying areas without putting a drainage system in place beforehand”.

“And the residents invariably are stranded in floods everytime it rains,’’ said a resident of K R Puram.