The incessant rain and resultant flooding on Friday morning not only exposed the woeful civic infrastructure of the city, but also its lack of good leadership.
The Chief Minister, who is heading the Bengaluru Development Ministry after K.J. George resigned from the Cabinet, is currently not in the country. He is believed to have directed the Mayor to lead the response to the floods.
Mayor B.N. Manjunath Reddy has been on the ground in South-east Bengaluru since Friday morning, but the lack of interdepartmental coordination made the situation worse. The lakes that flooded were under the aegis of the BBMP, BDA and Forest Department.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is in Belgium, spoke to BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad on Friday and instructed him to take immediate steps to provide relief to those affected by flooding in some areas in Bengaluru.
According to a communiqué from the Chief Minister’s secretariat, Mr. Siddaramaiah also directed Minister R. Ramalinga Reddy apart from Mayor Manjunath Reddy to visit the affected areas and personally supervise the relief work.
