CIOInsider India Magazine
Karnataka Government, IT Firms to Find Permanent Solution for Water Clogging
The Karnataka government and IT companies are working towards finding a permanent solution to prevent water logging in the city following incessant rainfall over the last few days has been affecting citizens and several tech firms in two key tech suburbs.
A monthly virtual meeting has been decided to be held and the stakeholders have also agreed to attend, with representatives from industry bodies including Nasscom in attendance.
Chairing the 90-minute meeting along with chief secretary Vandita Sharma and Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, State IT/BT minister CN Ashwath Narayan assured that the flooding issue would be solved by the next monsoon.
There were about 50 industry representatives who attended the meeting, most hailing from companies located in the Mahadevapura zone, the worst affected by the downpour since August 30.
Some of the participants at the meeting offered to help the government with technology and design solutions, as well as talent, to solve the rain-related woes.
Suggestions such as adopting for the Outer Ring Road (ORR) stretch the same administrative model that industries in the Electronic City corridor have been following, such as including industry representatives in the BBMP zonal civic structure.
The 903-acre Electronic City Industries Association is managed by its own civic authority called Elcita. The body has about 300 member companies that pay a monthly fee for the maintenance of the tech suburb.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court asked Bangalore’s civic body BBMP to set up ward-wise grievance cells after residents in the tech suburbs of Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli faced hardships due to the unprecedented rainfall.
A division bench of acting Chief Justice Alok Arade and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty asked the BBMP to notify an engineer for each ward to respond to the grievances.
Some of the participants at the meeting offered to help the government with technology and design solutions, as well as talent, to solve the rain-related woes.
Additionally, the government gave its word on removing illegal encroachments of storm water drains.
On the Twitter platform, former director of Infosys TV Mohandas Pai urged the government to form a committee - led by an additional chief secretary and consisting of civic leaders – that would report to the IT/BT Minister to monitor the progress.
