Need Long-Term, Sustained Measures to Tackle Deluge in B'luru

Picture this: Earlier this week, on Tuesday afternoon, most top Congress leaders in Karnataka, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, were sharing the dais with their central leaders at a massive convention in Hosapete—around 320 km from Bengaluru—to mark the Congress government completing two years in office.

- Ramu Patil

They eloquently spoke about the government's achievements. The mood was celebratory. Around the same time, people in many parts of the state capital were struggling to deal with incessant rain pouring misery on them. Their houses were flooded, and streets turned into streams with boats pressed into service. There was a sense of frustration and helplessness.

The deluge yet again exposed a governance deficit and unplanned and unregulated growth of the city that powers the state's economy and is home to IT giants, research and development institutes of national repute, and a thriving start-up ecosystem. Unfortunately, flooding of residential areas and roads and then deploying inflated boats into service has become a new normal. It takes the victims of a deluge several days or weeks to come to terms with the devastation.

Like in the past, politicians indulged in blame games and spoke about how bad the situation was in other big cities in the country as if that was a solace to reduce the suffering and an excuse for the authorities not doing what they ought to have done before the rain started. Anger among the people was palpable. The CM, DyCM, and legislators who visited some rain-hit areas to get a firsthand impression of the situation faced public ire.