The monsoon brings misery to some parts of the city. With the storm-water drains clogged with silt and garbage, free flow of rainwater is hindered. Encroachments along the drain network further complicate the situation.
Despite being pulled up several times by the High Court of Karnataka for not going strongly against encroachers of storm-water drains (SWDs), the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is yet to take any action.
It has been more than six months since the Revenue Department in the office of the Deputy Commissioner (Urban) surveyed the SWD network in the city. Even though the report was submitted to the BBMP, officials are yet to even complete fixing the boundaries of drains.
The city has a drain network measuring around 850 km, including raja kaluves (big SWD), secondary and tertiary drains. A senior official, on condition of anonymity, told The Hindu that following directions from the High Court, the survey of 600 km drain network in the five outer zones — Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli, Yelahanka, Dasarahalli and Rajarajeshwarinagar — were taken up. The survey of 400 km of the network has been completed and the report submitted to the BBMP.
“We are now working on verifying original plans and revenue records to fix the boundary. Once this process has been completed, the list of encroachments will be shared with zonal commissioners. The onus is then on them to clear the encroachments,” the official said and added that the BBMP needn’t issue notices to encroachers.
While the survey of only raja kaluves has been taken up, the official clarified that the survey of secondary and tertiary drains, identifying the encroachers and clearing the encroachments was the responsibility of zonal commissioners and chief engineers.
BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan reiterated the BBMP’s commitment to clearing encroachments along the SWD network and said removal of encroachment had begun, albeit on a small scale, in the Dasarahalli zone. He said 25,000 sq. ft. of encroachments on the drains had been cleared. “Irrespective of who the encroacher is, we will clear all the encroachments,” he said.
He said the BBMP was strengthening the SWD network by taking up construction of retaining walls with funding from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
The Comptroller and Auditor General, in its report in 2013, had among other things pointed to the fact that the BBMP had failed to meet the objective of remodelling SWDs under the JNNURM.
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