Water recedes: Begur back to normalcy

Water recedes: Begur back to normalcy
DH News Service, Bangalore:
The flood-like situation is over in Begur and surrounding areas and water is receding only to let people evaluate the loss they had incurred.


Stagnant water in a large area starting from Begur Lake to Vajpayeenagar and further, remind of the devastation the mild flood had caused in just one day. Flood has receded and the stagnant water is helping people to wash their vehicles. However, the flood reaching up to Vajpayeenagar has a reason: The large drain or the ‘Rajakaluve’ has been encroached and several illegal constructions are choking the flow of the drain. The greed of space to live ate up the expanse of the drains.

When the drains swelled on Friday, its water gushed into the houses, offices and all the other buildings in the area. The water is now receded but the damage caused by the flood-like situation had incurred heavy loss. It would take years for many people to recover from it.

A resident of Vajpayeenagar, Amarnath Reddy, who runs a mess and PG home estimates that his loss may not be less than Rs 4 lakhs. He said his furniture and electronic equipment including a refrigerator and television was damaged. The sump was half filled with silt.

The BSNL is also having its exchange in the same area. At the basement of a complex the BSNL has established its exchange. Due to the flood, the generator which costs around Rs 15 lakh was damaged. On Saturday the basement had water up to four-foot from the ground.

Several sophisticated machines that were kept on the ground are feared to be damaged.

Devastating

Sources in the BSNL said the extra-precautionary measures did not work as the ‘flood’ was too devastating. The BSNL plans to shift the office from the ground to the first floor.

Every resident of Bommanahalli, Garvebavipally, Hongasandra, Begur, Mangamanapallya and Vajpayeenagar has a tell-tale about the devastation of the flood-like condition.

According to the residents, this was the fourth ‘flood’ in the last eight years. The first flood occurred in 2000 and the second one in 2004. The most devastating flood occurred in 2005 when several families living near the drain left their shanties and went elsewhere. All the floods had occurred in the month of October.

The flood-like condition is apparently because of the encroachment of the main drain whose width has been reduced and its flow has been choked at several places. Shanties have come up everywhere on both sides of the large drains.

According to the BBMP sources, the layout near the large drains area basically illegal and houses have come up on revenue sites.