They had never thought of maintaining the lakes, he said and hastened to add he has now taken up a challenge to set things right and had allocated Rs 1,500 crore for development of stormwater drains. Lot of encroachments are also being cleared.
Several parts of the rain-battered city on Tuesday saw a repeat of scenes witnessed on September 5 such as inundated roads, tractors ploughing through flooded localities ferrying people, submerged vehicles and more overnight rains.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai cited "unprecedented rainfall and overflowing" water bodies for the deluge but assured his government's commitment to restore normalcy. He also faulted the 'maladministration' of the previous Congress governments for the present situation of the city, known as India's IT hub, and insisted only two zones bore the brunt of rains although a picture was being painted as if entire Bengaluru was struggling.
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"Karnataka, especially Bengaluru has not received unprecedented heavy rain...for the last 90 years such rain has not been recorded. All the tanks are full and are overflowing, some of them have breached, and there have been continuous rains, every day it is raining," he said.
Speaking to reporters, the Chief Minister said an image was being created as if the entire city was facing difficulties, which was not the case.
"Basically the issue lies in two zones, particularly the Mahadevapura zone for reasons such as the presence of 69 tanks in that small area and almost all of them have either breached or are overflowing. Secondly, all establishments are in low lying areas, and the third is encroachments," he listed out.
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His government has taken it as a "challenge" to restore normalcy and engineers and workers and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams are working round the clock.
Blaming "maladministration and unplanned administration" of the previous Congress governments for the present misery, CM Bommai said they had given permissions for construction activities "right-left-centre" in the lake areas, on the tank bunds and buffer zones.
They had never thought of maintaining the lakes, he said and hastened to add he has now taken up a challenge to set things right and had allocated Rs 1,500 crore for development of stormwater drains. Lot of encroachments are also being cleared.
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Meanwhile, citizens continued to face difficulties and roads, streets, and posh localities continued to reel under water. Expensive top-end cars and vehicles lying under water, even in areas that have luxury villas, was a common sight.
Meanwhile, a 23-year-old woman allegedly died due to electrocution after she came into contact with an electric pole while navigating a flooded road at Siddapura. The incident is said to have taken place on Monday night, when the victim was returning home on her scooter.
(With inputs from PTI)