Rains, drains and a lakeful of woes

Rains, drains and a lakeful of woes
Deccan Herald

The roads flood with knee-deep water when it rains. And when there are no rains, they rake up enough dust to choke a passerby. But the road from Nagawara to Thanisandra and the nearby residential areas in Saraipalya seem to have not caught the attention of authorities who could change things for better.

On Saturday, hundreds of residents and members of the Nanda Gokula Welfare Association staged a protest near the ring road against the apathy of the authorities concerned in undertaking developmental works in the area and establishing drainage connections for rainwater to drain off.

Tyres were burnt and police had to intervene with lathis to prevent the crowd from turning unruly. It brought the Yelahanka MLA Prasanna Kumar, PWD engineers and Byatarayanapura CMC Commissioner C K Dashwanth to the spot. A temporary solution was provided in the form of trenches to drain off the stagnant rainwater.

According to Srinivas, a resident, when it rains and the Hebbal, Nagawara, Dasarahalli and Jakkur lakes fill up and water flows out through the MS Ramaiah (North) City Layout, the HBR Layout and the Nanda Gokula Layout which falls between these two layouts. Without a proper storm water drain, all the slush make their way into the layout and stagnates, he claimed.

Some residents claimed that the problem was mainly due to a bridge and a diversion canal being built by the Public Works Department, which was obstructing the drainage of rainwater. With the work progressing slowly, water has no outlet and hence the flooding in these regions, they said.

Mr Dashwanth said that there were storm water drains in the area. He also said that he had written to the officials concerned in the PWD seeking early completion of the bridge.