Mysuru: Signals are clear. The city is going the Bengaluru way. This was in ample evidence as the residents of Paduvarahalli were a harried lot last night, as rainwater gushed into the houses on 8th Cross in Ward No.33.

The situation turned serious as the women and children in the area fell sick. The Health Department officials visited the spot and treated the affected residents. Some of them had suffered fracture, a few had bruises and some had fever.

Additional Deputy Commissioner T. Yogesh and Tahsildar T. Ramesh Babu also visited the spot and spoke to the residents and assured them that their grievances will be looked into at the earliest.

Residents panic

It started raining heavily last night and the water from the higher altitude areas like Jayalakshmipuram, near Aishwarya Petrol Bunk, Chandrakala Hospital started flowing down and entered the houses in the low-lying areas of Paduvarahalli.

As the water level rose to about six to seven feet, the residents panicked and started shouting for help. The Abhaya rescue team from MCC came to the spot but left immediately, alleged the residents.

The rising water level forced Kalavathi, wife of Mohan Kumar who was away on night duty to climb up and take shelter on the loft. It was then that a few boys who were staying as paying guests in the neighbourhood came to the rescue of the people. Kishan, Darshan, Suraj and Ravi all students sprung into action. They climbed on the roof of the house, removed the tiles and pulled Kalavathi out to safety.

Similarly, in another house Sakuntala, her 16-year-old daughter Bhumika and five-year-old daughter Ganavi were caught in neck-deep water. The presence of mind of the tiny tot Ganavi saved their lives as she put her tiny feet on the bolt of the door, caught hold of the loft and started shouting for help. Hearing her cries, the boys rushed to the house and rescued them.

“All these years it had not rained heavily. Now the vents in the lakebed, which was earlier connected to Kukkarahalli Lake is blocked. As a result the rainwater overflows flooding the whole area,” she said.

MLA Vasu speaking to Star of Mysore said, “I rushed to the spot on hearing about the problems of the residents and I got involved in the rescue operations the whole of last night and this morning.”

Mayor M.J. Ravikumar visited the spot this morning along with others and assured the residents of compensation. Ravikuamar told Star of Mysore that the vent leading to Kukkarahalli Lake on Hunsur Road will be immediately repaired.

“We were waiting for Dasara to be over to take up the work on the vent. However, we never expected that it would rain so heavily and cause so much of problems,” he said.

He also visited Srirampura and other rain-affected areas in the city this morning.

Dasara Exhibition Stall owners protest

More than 100 stall owners in the Karnataka Exhibition Grounds were an upset lot as the heavy rains last night had flooded their stalls. They came out this morning and staged a protest against the Exhibition authorities for their callous attitude and said that they would not open the stalls till their problems were sorted out.

Vinod Kumar of Fun World who has taken up the contract for the exhibition stalls told Star of Mysore that even two weeks back when it had rained heavily, the stall owners had suffered losses as most of the items were destroyed in the rain. They had to suffer a loss of nearly Rs.75 lakh.

The area near the Amusement Park was worst affected as the water entered the shops here when it started raining around 7.30 pm last night. The juice and cloth and textile shops were the worst hit.

The exhibition will be open till December end. But, if the condition of the grounds continue to be pathetic, then it will be very difficult for them to survive as the number of footfalls will decrease, said the anxious stall owners.

KEA Chairman, CEO react

Meanwhile, the Exhibition Authority Chairman Siddaraju said that the KEA will take immediate measures to prevent water logging in future by expanding the drainage network so that the storm water flows out smoothly whenever it rains.

KEA Chief Executive Officer Shashikumar said that he has talked to the District in-charge Minister on the perennial problem of water logging in Dasara Exhibition Grounds whenever it rained heavily. The Minister has directed the contractor to address the issue at the earliest.