Bengaluru:

Weeks after Bengaluru made national headlines for a crippling water crisis, with visuals of people queuing up near tankers flashing on TV screens, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a scathing attack on the ruling Congress in Karnataka, saying the party turned “tech city into a tanker city”. Hitting back, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has asked where the Prime Minister was when Karnataka suffered due to floods and droughts.

The 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka are voting in two phases in this election, with the polling due on April 26 and May 7. All Bengaluru seats will go to polls on April 26.

At a rally in the city days before polling, the Prime Minister said he wants to take the country ahead and accused the Congress of being “anti-investment, anti-entrepreneurship, anti-private sector, anti-taxpayer, anti-wealth creator”.

“Modi says he will make the country a green energy hub, pharma hub, electronics hub, electrical vehicle hub, semiconductor hub, and a global innovation hub so that India becomes a hub of Global economy. But the people of Congress and the INDI alliance say they will remove Modi,” he said.

“It is Modi’s guarantee that after 5G, we will now launch 6G, they say they will remove Modi. It is Modi’s guarantee that we will bring AI, but they say they will remove Modi. It is Modi’s guarantee that after Chandrayaan, we will now make India proud of Gaganyaan, they say, they will remove Modi. Congress is anti-youth because it is anti-investment, it is anti-entrepreneurship, it is anti-private sector, it is anti-taxpayer, it is anti-wealth creator,” he added.

The Prime Minister said the BJP and Janata Dal-Secular have come together to fulfil the dreams of Karnataka’s people. 

“I guarantee that your dreams are my resolve. My life is dedicated to you and the country. I promise 24X7 for 2047,” he said, referring to the goal of making India a developed country by 2047.

“Congress has turned tech city into a tanker city. The budget is being cut from agriculture to urban infrastructure. Congress is only focused on corruption, and not on the problems of Bengaluru. Only the projects of the central government are moving ahead fast,” he said.

“The kind of thoughts and ideology being promoted by Congress government in Karnataka is very dangerous. Our daughters are being attacked, bombs are exploding in markets, and people are being attacked for listening to religious songs, these incidents are not common. I urge my brothers and sisters to stay very alert of the Congress,” he added. The statements come in the wake of the murder of a Congress leader’s 21-year-old daughter in Hubbali, and a blast in Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe and the thrashing of three youngsters, allegedly for raising “Jai Shri Ram” slogans.

In a sharp response, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah posted on X, “Claims of working 24×7 for the people, yet where was he during Karnataka’s floods and droughts? So, what’s the real story behind this ’24×7′? Sounds like it’s all PR, all the time!”

Claims of working 24×7 for the people, yet where was he during Karnataka’s floods and droughts?

So, what’s the real story behind this ’24×7′?

Sounds like it’s all PR, all the time!#Modis24x7

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) April 20, 2024

The Chief Minister also hit back at the Prime Minister’s remarks in Karnataka’s Chikkaballapur, where he said Karnataka is the biggest example of how the Congress “deceives” the farmers.

“We started the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme for small and marginal farmers. When Karnataka had a BJP government, the farmers of the state received Rs 10000 each, Rs 6,000 from the central government and Rs 4000 from Karnataka’s BJP government. But as soon as Congress formed government in the state, it stopped giving Rs 4000 to the farmers,” the Prime Minister said.

The Chief Minister replied that the Prime Minister must ask his conscience if he is really a well-wisher of farmers. Referring to the 2020-21 farmers’ movement on Delhi borders, he asked about 700 farmers who died during the protest and questioned the Prime Minister’s moral position to talk about farmers.

The Centre, he said, was still not ready to fulfill the farmers’ demand for a law to guarantee Minimum Support Price and has imposed GST on seeds and fertiliser.

The BJP, he said, was anti-farmer from the beginning. “It is the party of capitalists, businessmen and traders. Anti-farmer poison is in the DNA of this party,” he said, questioning what the Narendra Modi government has given to Karnataka farmers during its 10-year-rule.

He said Karnataka’s farmers are intelligent enough to understand who their well-wisher is and will teach “anti-farmer” forces a lesson in the election.

Bengaluru:

Five showers in a month, ordering out instead of cooking and using treated water for non-drinking purposes – the water crisis in Bengaluru has pushed residents to the wall as they struggle for every drop. As the people adopt recycling methods to manage with less water, NDTV visited some parched areas and spoke to them about how life has changed.

Residents of suburban Babusapalya are dependent on water tankers for their daily supply, and that has taken a severe hit over the past couple of months.

“We need four tankers daily. We are getting only one or two. We are facing huge problems over the past two-three months,” one resident said.

Asked if the city administration’s order to fix tanker water rates has helped, a resident said, “The rates have stabilised, but the problem remains huge. We are not getting tankers on time because of high demand.”

A woman resident of an apartment complex in the area was leaving for work. When NDTV asked her about the towering water crisis, she replied, “We have a baby, it is very difficult. Tankers are not coming. The government has reduced the prices, but they are not coming. Even if they come, the water is not sufficient. I don’t know when this will get resolved and when we will get back to normal life.”

Asked if they are hopeful of better times once the monsoon comes, a resident flagged problems with the way in which successive governments implemented development projects. “They did not consider the (overall) well-being of people. The focus has been on building apartments and roads, but we need to work on the groundwater level. It has never been done. I have been here 15 years. I have never seen such measures by any government,” he said, adding that people are waiting in kilometre-long queues for drinking water.

One resident said he took a bath 5 times over the past one month.

Bengaluru primarily gets its water supply from two sources – Cauvery river and groundwater. For most non-drinking uses, recycled water processed by sewage treatment plants is used. With no rain for a while now, the primary sources have been stretched to their limits. The result is a daily struggle for the city’s residents.

The authorities have responded with fixed rates for tankers supplying water to residential areas following allegations of extortion. Fines have been announced for use of drinking water for cleaning vehicles or gardening.

The water crisis has hit hospitals too. Brookfield Hospital near Whitefield, one of the parched areas in the city right now, depends on water tankers and needs 24,000 litres in three days. That’s not all, 5,000 litres are needed daily just for the dialysis unit.

Dr Pradeep Kumar, medical officer of Brookfield Hospital, said, “We are recycling water and using it along with regular water for washing and cleaning.”

Bengaluru has a huge chunk of the country’s migrant techies, who have flocked to the IT hub for the opportunities it offers. Now, they are looking at work-from-home options to minimise water use.

Shruthi, an engineer said, “Work-from-home will be a viable option, but only if people actually went home so that the population is reduced and water consumption drops.”

Bengaluru may be parched, but the political pot is boiling. The Opposition BJP has warned of protests, with Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya accusing the Congress government of negligence. “The government failed to take up precautionary measures. As a result of this negligence, the people of Bengaluru are facing this tough water crisis,” he has said.

Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has brushed aside the allegations. “BJP must protest in Delhi for projects like Mahadayi. People like (former Chief Minister) Jagadish Shettar and (Union Minister) Prahlad Joshi will also benefit from drinking water,” he told the media. The Mahadayi project plans to divert river water to parched areas of Karnataka.

Such is the situation that cricket authorities are discussing if the M Chinnaswamy cricket stadium can host IPL matches later this month.

Another group of friends that has gathered at a coffee shop said the situation now is difficult to manage. Asked if the government’s steps are going to help in the long run, one of them said, “It’s only verbal diarrhoea. I don’t think the government is going to provide a better lifestyle to us.”

The residents said they meet at the coffee shop daily after playing badminton. “We stay in Pragati township. The government last year provided nine borewells for us. We used to get water till last month, but suddenly we came to know all the borewells have dried up. Getting water from tankers is very difficult because we have to book well in advance. We were paying Rs 700-800 (for water). Now the cost has gone up to Rs 1,500-Rs 2,000. And we are in March. So we don’t know what the situation will be if it does not rain. The civic body has initiated online water supply, but that has not been activated yet. The question is if they take over the tankers, will we get water on time?”