Seven houses collapse following heavy rain

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, SEPT. 23. Heavy rain that lashed the City on Friday and Saturday has left behind a trail of destruction and suffering. At least seven houses, four in Sudhamanagar Slum in HAL 3rd Stage and three in Rajendranagar Slum off National Games Village, have collapsed. That apart, more than a dozen houses have been damaged in these two slums.

Though no one was injured, house-hold articles and foodgrains were destroyed. Many families have been rendered homeless. In Sudhamanagar Slum, which is part of the posh HAL 3rd Stage and is 200 metres away from the Airport Road, utensils were washed away in the flash floods.

Waist-deep rain water entered the houses in the area on Saturday night forcing the inmates to rush out.

Mr. Murthy, a resident of the Sudhamanagar, said more than a dozen youth of the area took up immediate rescue operations and shifted the children to safety.

On Sunday afternoon, though it had stopped raining, the residents of the area were busy flushing out rain water that had gushed into their houses overnight.

A piece of fenced land at Sudhamanagar belonging to the HAL had virtually turned into a ``dam'' and rain water from it was overflowing into the slum.

To check this, the residents had created holes in the compound wall of the site to facilitate the flow of water into the stormwater drain. However, the stormwater and underground drains in the area had got clogged and the sewage was not only overflowing onto the road but had also entered the houses in the BDA Colony, located opposite the Sudhamanagar Slum on the otherside of the road.

Mr. Phillips, a junior telecom officer with the BSNL, and a resident of the BDA Colony, said that the main stormwater drain in the locality had got blocked and thus there was an overflow of rain water as well as sewage into the houses.

The civic authorities and local police visited the area and conducted a survey. The area is part of the Varthur Assembly constituency represented by the Animal Husbandry and Sugar Minister, Mr. A.Krishnappa. The local people maintained that despite many complaints made to the MLA their problems had not been solved.

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Section  : Southern States
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