Hitting back at Karnataka Chief Minister for blaming previous Congress governments' 'maladministration' for Bengaluru's rain woes, party's state president D K Shivakumar on Tuesday urged Basvaraj Bommai and his administration to perform or face election.
India's best-known IT firms and startups have asked staff to work from home as torrential rains brought chaos on streets of the technology hub, marooning roads and snapping water and electricity supplies.
While parts of the city that houses several global companies and home-grown startups, were under water, operations in IT firms and startups were largely unaffected as most of them had power backup and a hybrid work environment where some employees logged in from home.
But some of the posh housing colonies were flooded and tractors were pressed into service to rescue residents.
As rains disrupted traffic and threw lives out of gear, footages of IT workers travelling in tractors to reach workplace amid heavy waterlogging in the city, also surfaced on social media platforms. - PTI.
Hitting back at Karnataka Chief Minister for blaming previous Congress governments' 'maladministration' for Bengaluru's rain woes, party's state president D K Shivakumar on Tuesday urged Basavaraj Bommai and his administration to perform or face election. He also alleged that the "corrupt" BJP government and its officials were responsible for Bengaluru's current situation.
"If there were encroachments during the Congress tenure, let them (BJP) clear it, they had earlier got five years' time, they had now got five years, they should have done it...not performing while in power and blaming previous Congress governments instead is not right," Shivakumar said, reacting to the Chief Minister's statement. - PTI.
A blame game between the ruling BJP and Congress has begun in Karnataka over the recent collapse of infrastructure in Bengaluru owing to floods triggered by heavy rainfall.
Submerged Bengaluru roads, flooded rivers in Kerala and rains wreaking havoc in Himachal Pradesh - are the abiding images of this year's monsoon. In Himachal, an estimated 200 people have died in two months since the onset of the monsoon. The rains affected everyday life in several parts of the country, and neighbouring Pakistan experienced one of its worst floods. Pakistan contributes less than 1 per cent of the global carbon emissions but is facing the severe wrath of climate change.
These pictures narrate the grim situation of rain-battered Bengaluru as torrential downpourcontinues in India's Silicon Valley. The situation continuesto remain the same, with streets waterlogged, and houses and vehicles partially inundated as some areas in Bengaluru received 150 per cent more rains than the normal level between September 1 and 5.
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Biotechnology industry veteran Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has termed therainhavoc in Bengaluru as "devastating" and said the city has never faced flooding at such a scale. Both the government and developers need to take collective responsibility to address water-logging, the Executive Chairperson of Bengaluru-headquartered biopharmaceuticals company, Biocon, told PTI on Tuesday.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday blamed the previous Congress governments' 'maladministration' andunprecedented rainsin the capital city for the deluge. He said, despite all odds, his government has taken it up as a challenge to restore the rain battered city, and make sure that such things don't recur in the future.
Waterlogging in Bengaluruhappened because of maladministration & totally unplanned administration of previous Congress government. They gave permission right, left & centre in the lakes & buffer zone, saysCM Basavaraj Bommai.
Karnataka, esp Bengaluru, has received unprecedented rain. Entire Bengaluru isn't in problem.We have taken it as a challenge. Our officers, engineers, workers & SDRF team are working 24/7. We have cleared a lot of encroachments and we are going to continue to clear them. Secondly, we are putting sluice gates to the tanks. So, that we can manage them better, saysKarnataka CMBasavaraj Bommai.
Tweeple don't mince words. When an overnight downpour led to a deluge like situation in the country's IT hub, Twitterati did not hold itself back and fired from all cylinders.
From plain angst to quirky sarcasm or questioning the authorities, many Twitter users were at their creative best, some quipping "Bengaluru is Venice now" while some others rued the eroding green cover leading to new civic challenges.
Karnataka Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr KSudhakar said on Tuesday that any city in the world would have faced a similar crisis as Bengaluru did if it received the same amount of heavyrainas it received here.
Referring to the collapse of infrastructure and many residential areas inundated affecting the normal life in many parts of Bengaluru, especially in areas considered as IT hubs, Sudhakar stated that it was true that Bengaluru city was disturbed by heavyrain.
Three Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) are scheduled to visit Karnataka from September 7 to 9 to assess the extent of damage suffered in the state due to floods in the months of July and August.
The IMCTs will be led by Ashish Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs. Its members include Dr K Manoharan, Director, Ministry of Agriculture and Ashok Kumar from Ministry of Jal Shakti.
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Once the lifeline of IT employees commuting to Outer Ring Road (ORR), BMTC buses had lost out to cab aggregators in the recent years.
However, as overnight rains dumped gallons of water on city roads, techies crammed into buses on the route despite most of them, including the air-conditioned ones, crawling through the floods.
Several flights delayed after heavy rains and due to bad weather conditions in Karnataka.
Heavy downpour in the city has claimed the life of a 23-year-old woman.The woman allegedly touched an electric pole while crossing the flooded road in Siddapura on Monday night. She succumbed to injuries.
Two persons, including an eight-year-old child, died after being swept away in a flash flood at Mankayam waterfalls in Palode near here, police said on Monday.
Both were part of a group that was caught in the flash flood that occurred on Sunday evening. "A group of 10 people had reached the area to attend a wedding. They tried to visit Brimur forest area but it was closed for public. So they visited the place where the incident took place. While eight persons of the group held on to a rock the other two were washed away," a police officer told PTI.
Boats have been deployed in Bengaluru suburbs after heavy rains pounded and inundated the city.
The most affected areas were the IT hub regions of Electronics City, Marathahalli, Outer Ring Road, Mahadevapura, Whitefield and Bommanahalli.
Chief Minister Basavara Bommai on Monday stated that the Bengaluru city has received heavy rains which extensively damaged 30 places in Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli zones. Both the zones house major IT companies besides being home to a major chunk of IT professionals.
Torrential overnight rains left India's IT capital struggling on Monday as inundation and waterlogging threw life out of gear, leading to a public outpour of anger against alleged misgovernance and the powers that be.
Boats and tractors were pressed into service in certain parts and a forecast of more rains has caused worry among the people residing in the vulnerable areas, even as many have started moving to safer zones, taking with them only necessary belongings.
The rains severely impacted Bengaluru, capital city of the poll-bound Karnataka, leaving overflowing lakes and stormwater drains that inundated low-lying areas.