Friday last, it rained heavily. So heavily that it was over 100 mm in just a few hours. When the average rainfall per annum in Bengalooru being 900 mm, this 100mm downpour in a couple of hours, virtually opened up the skies and obviously resulted in many difficulties for the people. The low lying areas, and the places where the passage of major drains are usurped by residents themselves, have their problems augmented by notches.
It was 6 00 am when I left home to Domlur yesterday where there are many such low lying areas. Clogged drains brimming with sewage water had inundated the houses of those hapless people. Local corporator smt Geeta Srinivasa Reddy accompanied me, and so also the team from BWSSB, BBMP and the fire force. That was a pathetic state of affairs. I pepped up BBMP, Fireforce, BWSSB... workers to hurry up and clear the sewage water out of the place. Another Corporator Mr Gowtham Kumar took me to his area, Jogupalya where the UGD system had developed complications. It was an immediate decision and immediate steps to contain the problem. I ensured the officers drew plans for permanent solutions immediately. It was over six hours in these areas, that I spent yesterday.
The immediate afternoon, I was informed that the age old wall belonging to Chitrakala parishat on Kumara krupa road had come down and the neighboring old age home has been victimized by the falling wall. I reached the spot immediately with the BBMP engineers and got started the relief work.
Again in the evening, a new 3 floor building under construction had caved in at Ramachandrapuram, near Okalipuram .When I reached there the local MLA Mr Dinesh Gundu Rao was also there. The builder for the reasons best known only to him had put up 2 new floors over an age old ground floor building, which was absolutely wrong and had resulted in this collapse. Fortunately, no life was lost.
As I have been making it a routine to attend complaints at BWSSB call centre in a bid to instill some seriousness in its working, I was at BWSSB call centre (control room) yesterday too and sat there for over forty-five minutes monitoring the complaints.By then it had already started raining heavily.
It was around 6 40 pm when I came to know about the collapse of the compound adjacent to Freedom Park. Rushed there. Learnt that over 8 cars were beneath the rubble. Rescue operation was on. The huge gathering was a hindrance to the operation. Police were pushing the onlookers away, but the crowd was jostling forward to have a look at the scene.
While I was instructing officers, one person rushed to me anxiously to disclose that his Engineer Friend was inside the car beneath and till few minutes back he was responding to the mobile calls, but now it had stopped too. He was his eyes full of tears, and asking innocently if his friend could still be alive. Oh! I was struck by his agonized pleadings. Just when I asked the rescue operations to be braced up, the top of the car was cut open by the operators and there, his Engineer friend was sitting in the driver seat, BUT, dead. This friend was inconsolable, and it moved me. When the body was lifted from the driver's seat I could not bear the sight and moved to the periphery.
Immediately a lady came running, crying all the way loudly. I really thought that she should be the relative of the demised engineer. NO. SHE WAS N'T. Her anguish was because; her newly purchased car through her hard earnings was under the rubble fully damaged. She was uncontrollable too. I tried to console her saying, that she can purchase a new car as she can get insurance help whereas the dead engineer will not come back and how relatively lucky she was. But that could not console her anyway. She continued with her sobbing. Yes, one can understand her agony as she had purchased the car after lot of savings as she had dreamt for it long. But her crushed car was all the more important thing than any thing else for her including the tragic death next to her.
Again in the meanwhile, another person came rushing to me to complain that in front of his shop/office that is a situated on the other side of the mishap spot there is a lot of silt in the drain to be cleared immediately. His grouse was that the Corporation gang men were fully drunk and refusing to clear the drain. I told him that it will be attended to immediately after clearing the rubble to see if any more persons are beneath. To my utter surprise, he was saying clearing the rubble might be done later after his complaint is attended. No logic, no reasoning could convince him. He went away in a huff.
Yes. For that friend, who lost his chum, that was the heart rendering moment. For that lady, the new car under rubble made her genuinely cry. For the shop owner, that was an opportunity to get his things done, come what may.
Again in the meanwhile, another person came rushing to me to complain that in front of his shop/office that is a situated on the other side of the mishap spot there is a lot of silt in the drain to be cleared immediately. His grouse was that the Corporation gang men were fully drunk and refusing to clear the drain. I told him that it will be attended to immediately after clearing the rubble to see if any more persons are beneath. To my utter surprise, he was saying clearing the rubble might be done later after his complaint is attended. No logic, no reasoning could convince him. He went away in a huff.
Yes. For that friend, who lost his chum, that was the heart rendering moment. For that lady, the new car under rubble made her genuinely cry. For the shop owner, that was an opportunity to get his things done, come what may.
That is life.
However, the civic authorities cannot shirk. The sheer negligence or show of irresponsibility should stop now. The late little Sanjana could not wake us up. Prakash, the demised Engineer is now trying. These things should not continue any longer with the same infamous complacent attitude, which has resulted in many inhuman tragedies. I will start the correction process immediately for sure.
S SURESHKUMAR
