More rain, no drain

Bengaluru flooded again. And nobody was surprised. While citizens waded through chest-deep water, leaders wasted no time in turning a tragedy they created into a theatre with photo ops and blame games. 

In 2022, Siddaramaiah, then in Opposition, proclaimed, “For the first time in Bengaluru’s history, people have fled their homes in boats.” Oh! Really? 

He had forgotten that in 2017, under his watch, the Bengaluru floods killed 16 people. 

In 2022, Congress State President D.K. Shivakumar blamed encroachments and asked why the BJP hadn’t cleared them. 

But Congress was in power for five years before that. Why didn’t they clear encroachments then? And now that they’re back in power, what have they done to clear them? Nothing. 

Back then, Congress even staged a protest. The BJP hit back, promising to “investigate which political forces ensured lake encroachments.”  The Congress promptly went silent and moved on to a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ when what we needed was a ‘Bengaluru Bachao Andolan.’

The tragedy of Karnataka is that there has not been an authentic Opposition party for some time. Congress, JD(S) and BJP are all bhai-bhai in their pursuit of riches by looting and destroying our cities.

What is shocking, though, is that while Bengaluru dies a slow death, our leaders are busy building their fiefdoms, literally. 

Our CM and Dy.CM are not able to manage their own home districts, and they are off to building new cities! 

Yesterday, Dy.CM changed the name of his district, Ramanagara, to Bengaluru South, and when critics doubted if it could be developed, he simply said, “Let them wait and watch.”

It is an open secret that lands all over Ramanagara have been bought by this leader’s associates, and now they want to develop it using public funds so their land value goes up?! Wah!

Similarly, our CM wants to build a new city near Mysuru called New Mysore! The present Mysuru itself is still struggling with failing infrastructure, disappearing lakes and destruction of green cover, and our CM is out to build a new Mysore? Wah! re Wah!

Where is the money to develop new cities? Are these politicians using our money to create new constituencies for their children? There is no hope for Karnataka as our leadership is visionless and we voters are hopeless. 

‘Flood Bhagya’ Another guarantee

 Bengaluru’s annual flooding is not just a monsoon problem; it’s an administrative failure.

Take Spice Garden Layout. Built near Bellandur Canal, it floods because the 6.5-km Raja Kaluve meant to drain rainwater into Varthur Lake has been encroached. If that single channel was left untouched, water would’ve flowed to Dakshina Pinakini River, and there would be no flooding.

Bengaluru once boasted 1,000 lakes. Smart urban planning by Kempegowda and later Lt. Gen. Richard Sankey created a cascading lake system — rainwater would flow from higher lakes to lower ones via wide inlets, the Raja Kaluves, and finally into natural valleys like Challaghatta, Hebbal and Vrishabhavathi. This made sure Bengaluru had no water shortage or flooding issues. But…

Today? Bengaluru features on a UN list of cities likely to run out of drinking water by 2040. From 937 lakes listed in revenue maps, only 17 remain “alive.” What happened?

The Government turned lakes into real estate. Yes, the Government. Dharmambudhi Lake became the Majestic Bus Stand. Akkithimmanahalli Lake was flattened for a hockey stadium. Sampangi Lake became Kanteerava Stadium. And Koramangala Lake? That’s now the National Games Village.

Then, of course, many lakes were covered up with the covert approval of bureaucrats and politicians and given off to land developers.

 Government apathy will guarantee that Bengaluru will flood for a long time to come.

Maybe the Congress can make it one of their guarantees — Flood Bhagya. 

Congress can also give another guarantee — flood-free Bengaluru? But they won’t, they can’t, because they are too busy building new cities for their children to rule over. 

Mysuru, rise now, don’t wait for water to rise

 As Bengaluru sinks, Mysuru stands on the brink. Lake expert U.N. Ravikumar noted in 2019 that Mysuru had 106 lakes. 37 have vanished. Of the remaining 69, just 22 fall under Mysuru City Corporation limits — and there’s no comprehensive plan to save even those.

Kukkarahalli Lake has been choked by encroachments. Jeevanna Rayana Katte is now J.K. Grounds. Subbarayana Kere is dry. Doddakere Maidan is a shadow of its former self. The water channels that fed these lakes have either been encroached upon or blocked. The swamp near Yelethota, a crucial water soaker? Sold to builders.

When drainage channels disappear, rainwater doesn’t. It simply knocks on your front door.

The issue is that 60 percent of local Corporators and nearly half the State Cabinet have real estate links. With builders writing the blueprint of our cities, floodplains become parking lots and lakes become layouts.

At this rate, Bengalureans and Mysureans may need to add a coracle to their garage. But knowing our creative politicians, they might soon slap a coracle tax and demand a rowing licence too.

Karnataka isn’t suffering from natural disasters, it’s drowning in man-made apathy. If we had leaders who saw lakes as life savers rather than land banks, if we had voters who demanded civic amenities instead of freebies, we wouldn’t be here ankle-deep in water and neck-deep in debt.

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