New York too would be like Bengaluru if it received such rains: Karnataka minister

Bengaluru, Sep 06: Karnataka Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr K Sudhakar on Tuesday said that New York would have been facing similar situation if it had received the same amount of rain as it was received in Bengaluru in the last few days.

"What would have happened if New York city would have received the same amount of excessive rain as here? Complaining is a very easy job. Solving the problem is a distant thing. Whose fault is it to merge hundreds of villages into greater Bengaluru and not taking up any development?" IANS quoted Sudhakar as saying.

His response comes over the criticism from many quarters about the collapse of infrastructure in the city affecting the normal life in many parts of Bengaluru.

"During this crisis time, citizens must join their hands with the government to face the situation. This is not the time for blame game," he pointed out.

Heavy rains in the past two days battered parts of Bengaluru, particularly information technology corridor and arterial roads, with several localities inundated.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai blamed the previous Congress governments' "maladministration" and unprecedented rains in the capital city for the deluge.

He said, despite all odds, his government has taken it up as a challenge to restore the rain battered city, and making sure that such things don't recur in the future. Owing to the torrential downpour that lashed the state capital for the last couple of days, several areas are still under water with houses and vehicles partially inundated, thereby affecting normal life.

"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," Bommai said.

Speaking to reporters, he said a picture is being portrayed that the entire city is facing difficulties, which is not the case. "Basically the issue lies in two zones, particularly the Mahadevapura zone for reasons such as 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.