City suffers green encroachment

BANGALORE: If you thought pre-monsoon miseries ended with heavy showers, traffic congestion and ailments, then the city civic body has more for the ‘drenched city.’ Due to non-availability of big trucks to clear the 100 uprooted trees, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to let the fallen trees lie on footpaths and roads. According to BBMP, only big trucks can ferry tree debris. But, such trucks are not available with the BBMP and they are now depending on contractors to clear the tree debris.Officials say citizens have to adjust with the wooden logs lying on roads. More than 100 trees had uprooted across the city last week.  Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy, Deputy Mayor L Srinivas, ruling party leader N Nagaraj, and other senior officials had visited these areas and had instructed the authorities concerned to clear the trees. However, no action has been taken. Amar Kumar, a college student from Basavanagudi said that trees were lying on footpaths in Chamarajpet for more than a week. “Footpaths are meant for pedestrians.  As there is no space to walk, we are forced to walk on roads,” he said.Meanwhile, a senior official from BBMP said there were enough staffers to cut the uprooted trees. “The trunks are heavy and occupy large space.  BBMP does not have big trucks to ferry the trunks. We have to depend on contractors, which is why we are not able to clear the trees,” the official said.Mayor Venkatesh Murthy said BBMP staffers were engaged in cutting the trunks, but the civic body did not have adequate staff to clear the trees.“BBMP has four depots and we will dump the trees there. We will call for a tender and the money generated through tender will be added to Palike’s account,” he said. Earlier, the Mayor had said they were planning to outsource additional staff to clear the trees.Presently, there are 20 light commercial vehicles and 13 emergency vehicles under BBMP’s fleet.