BANGALORE: The recent fire tragedy at Russell Market and scarcity of drinking water in Bangalore dominated the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council session on Tuesday. Members of all political parties appealed to the BBMP to address the problems before the situation goes out of hand.Councillors asked the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to chalk out strategies, so that not many water woes were reported during summer. BWSSB chairman Gaurav Gupta said, “The water board has formed a special team comprising 27 engineers to assist the Assistant Engineers (AE) and Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE). Also, a water timetable has been formed to ensure equal distribution of water to all the 198 wards. Currently, water is being supplied in 47 tankers to Bangalore East and North-East divisions, and 58 additional private tankers apart from 120 tankers have been hired for supply during summer. With the completion of fourth stage of Cauvery Phase II, the problems will decrease,” he assured. JD(S) councillor Padmanabha Reddy said, “This is the fourth chairman we are meeting in the past two years, but have not got any solutions.” He walked out of the meeting as a mark of protest. N Nagaraj, corporator from Nandini Layout staged a dharna. D J Halli corporator R Sampath Raj said that BWSSB had assured 35 million litres per day (MLD), but the present supply was not close to even 21 MLD. Basavanapura corporator K Poornima complained that voters hurled abuses everyday at the representatives for not supplying water regularly. Opposition leader M Udayshankar said out of the total 476 shops, 126 shops were gutted in fire. “Though the CM has promised to pay compensation, it is not clear who would foot the Bill. Also, the compensation amount should be increased as the loss is huge,” he said. BBMP Commissioner M K Shankerlinge Gowda clarified that Russell Market was not a heritage building as popularly believed. He said, “Only the architecture of the building has heritage style.”Deputy Commissioner (Markets) M Jaffery had submitted a detailed report about the fire mishap. BBMP will pay compensation on humanitarian grounds. “We will send another team and clear the compensation amount as early as possible, and the `1 crore funds from S M Krishna’s MP LAD will be channelised after the DC receives funds,” he added.
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