As citizens picked up the pieces after the rains abated, blame game and a tussle over ‘Brand Bengaluru’ began on Thursday.
After industrialist Mohandas Pai criticised the Bengaluru city infrastructure following the damages due to heavy rains, N.R. Ramesh, Bengaluru South District president of the BJP, wrote an open letter accusing Mr. Pai of “tarnishing the city’s image” through a social media campaign with the hashtag ‘#SaveBengaluru’.
In a long letter, the BJP leader has accused Information Technology industries in the city as the reason for the current situation of flooding, alleging that major IT companies have constructed their buildings on storm-water drains and their buffer zones. “The width of the primary drains and secondary drains of the rajakaluves have been completely encroached on or diverted during these constructions of IT companies,” Mr. Ramesh alleged in the letter.
#LeaveBengaluru trends
Meanwhile, on Thursday, a war of words broke out on social media, especially on micro blogging site Twitter, making #LeaveBengaluru trend with many netizens asking those who have moved to the city to “go back”.
The hashtag started after IT hub Bengaluru made headlines in the past two days after incessant rains that left several parts of the city, especially the IT corridor in east Bengaluru, flooded.
The hashtag started trending after a few residents, who have migrated to Bengaluru from other parts of the country, criticised the city’s infrastructure woes on social media. Opposing this, a few “locals” retorted that the “migrants” have to be blamed for the present condition of the city.
