BDA ignored plea; now a man is dead

bangalore: kavitha prasad, a resident of hsr layout, appealed to the bda a month ago to hasten work on a storm water drain being constructed in front of her house. it didn't. now the drain had claimed the life of krishnappa (60), her father-in-law. the bda had demolished a platform in front of kavitha's house to construct a storm water drain and put up a wooden structure to serve as a makeshift road.on sunday, krishnappa was returning home with his five-year-old grandson on a two-wheeler. while crossing the drain _ a few metres from home _ he slipped and fell into it. he died on the spot. the boy survived. for the last six months, the bangalore city corporation has been saying that the city won't be flooded during monsoon as it was desilting the drains. but the drains tell a different story. the incessant rains that lashed the city for the last four days have exposed some shortcomings. while the arterial roads and adjoining drains repaired recently under the municipal bond scheme were flooded, the plight of the sub-arterial roads was deplorable. the shoulder drains did a `reverse act', with water gushing out on to the roads. residents in low-lying areas are the worst hit. asha nair __ whose house gets flooded every day during the monsoon__ says the bcc officials inspected inundated areas and promised to put the drainage system in place by the next monsoon. ``but there hasn't been the slightest improvement. we go through hell every time it rains.'' residents complain the area engineers and top bcc officials do a disappearing act during crisis. ``i tried contacting our area engineer last night, but he was missing and so were all top officials. if this is the case, why do they show great interest when it comes to collecting taxes,'' asks a resident. for dinesh kumar of mico layout, monsoon implies wading through knee-deep water. for whatever it's worth, the bcc control room can be contacted on 2221188. permanent solution: the permanent solution to stop flooding of low-lying areas is to re-grade the four natural valleys -- koramangala, chellagatta, hebbal and vrishabhavati -- which are blocked. according to bcc engineer-in-chief r. jaiprasad, the low-lying areas have been planned haphazardly and houses are built on drains. since the drains carrying water to the main valley are blocked, areas are flooded during rains. ``the worst affected is koramangala and its surrounding areas. as a final solution, we will re-grade 24 km of natural valleys in the next one year. the work will commence soon,'' he informed.