‘Just who can live here now?’

‘Just who can live here now?’
The Times of India


Puttenahalli (JP Nagar VI Phase): “Looks like we are all animals and only they (officials and politicians) are human beings. Why are we being treated like animals in a zoo? We have been living in dirt and filth for the past five days and nobody so far has even bothered to set foot here. Look at my house. Just who can live here now?” laments Rukmini wading through waters at her home in Puttenahalli, a few metres off the Ring Road cutting through JP Nagar.

Puttenahalli residents are stranded under 4 feet of water, with no access to power, water or telephones. They have nowhere to go because of the pelting.

Rukmini can’t even open the door of her ground-floor house, jammed due to waterlogging inside. She has shifted her belongings to her neighbour’s house and has been living there. But she is not alone. All houses at ground level have nearly three feet of water, steadily rising with the heavy downpour.

Puttenahalli abuts the Puttenahalli Tank and is part of JP Nagar. Incidentally, this is the area which chief minister N Dharam Singh visited during heavy rain last month. He had to cut short his visit, unable to face the residents’ ire.

“Water will remain standing for nearly a week after the rains stop as there is no outlet. After a point, water starts stinking and it becomes unbearable,’’ points out Nagaratna, a resident of 29th Cross.

Residents staged a protest in the morning on the main road. But it was like water off a duck’s back — neither officials nor elected representatives turned up. Desperate calls to the CMC office have gone unanswered and residents said area councillor Patel Raj has even stopped answering calls.