Claiming that the storm-water drains or raja kaluves in Bengaluru were unable to bear the load of heavy rain that has been lashing the city for the last two months, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the State government will be developing the entire 850 km of the storm-water drains spread across the city.
Addressing presspersons here on Sunday, Mr. Siddaramaiah blamed the previous governments of failure to develop the storm-water drain network. The leaders of the Opposition parties, who were at the helm of affairs before his government took over, had neither cleared the encroachment of the drains nor increased their capacity by removing silt and build a retaining wall, he said.
His government has already sanctioned ₹800 crore for development of 350 km of storm-water drains in Bengaluru.
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The development of the remaining 500 km will be taken up next year, he said, before adding that the development of the storm-water drains will help prevent rain-related accidents.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said he has been staying in Bengaluru since 1983 and he has never witnessed as much rain as this year. “During the last 60 days, it has rained on 46 days. And it was not an ordinary rain. On most days, it had rained heavily. The drains and storm-water drains in Bengaluru do not have the capacity to withstand so much of rain,” the Chief Minister said.
While a couple and a priest, whose body was recovered, had died in the rain, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he has asked the officials to release compensation to the next of kin of a mother and daughter, who too are believed to have died in the rain.
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“Even though their bodies are yet to be found by the three teams searching for them, I have asked the officials to release compensation even before the bodies are recovered”, Mr. Siddaramaiah said before accusing the Opposition of playing politics with the rains.