IMD issues orange alert for Bengaluru; Shivakumar says flooding resolved in 70 pc areas in city
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Bengaluru (PTI): India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange alert for Bengaluru and a yellow alert at various places across Karnataka on Tuesday.
An orange alert means very heavy rain of 11 cm to 20 cm, and a yellow alert means heavy rainfall between 6 cm and 11 cm.
IMD Bengaluru Centre Director N Puviarasu said they have issued an orange alert for Bengaluru for the impact 8 cm to 10 cm that will likely affect the big city.
"The amount of rainfall we are receiving is nothing for rural areas. But because cities like Bengaluru are concretised mostly, and thus blocking the outlets for water drainage, we have issued an orange alert so that authorities can prepare accordingly," he said.
According to the IMD statement, areas likely to be affected today are Bagalkot, Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Belgaum, Chikkaballapura, Dharwad, Gadag, Kolar, Koppal, Vijayanagara districts.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said flooding issues have been resolved in 70 per cent of the identified areas in Bengaluru.
Shivakumar, who visited the affected areas in Bengaluru, including Sai Layout, Manyata Tech Park and Silk Board Junction, on Monday told reporters that they had identified 210 areas as flood prone in city.
"Ever since I took over as the Bengaluru Development Minister, we have fixed flooding issues in 166 (70 per cent) of those localities. Flood prevention work is currently going on in 24 areas while work would soon be taken up in the remaining 20 areas. We have built 197 km of storm water drains," he said.
Taking to his 'X' account, Shivakumar said rain is controlled by nature and they are trying to "control the controllables".
"We are rectifying flood-prone areas and are trying to help the common people. Quantum of rainfall has been very high in Silk Board junction, Hebbal and Yelahanka area. Underpass works are underway in a couple of places in these areas and they have been flooded. We will work with those departments to resolve these issues," he added.
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Harsh Mander: Multiple Cases Used to Intimidate Rights Defenders, Silence Dissent
New Delhi: Rights activist Harsh Mander has described Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s reported threat to file “at least 100 cases” against him as an attempt to intimidate human rights defenders and suppress dissent, following Mander’s police complaint accusing the Chief Minister of hate speech against Bengali-origin Muslims in Assam.
Mander said threats and intimidation would not deter him from pursuing the issue, adding that the Chief Minister’s response itself highlighted the gravity of the complaint. Speaking to Maktoob Media, he said that when a sitting Chief Minister reacts to a legal complaint by threatening mass litigation, it reflects an effort to browbeat and intimidate rather than offer a reasoned legal defence.
Earlier this week, Mander approached the Delhi Police’s Hauz Khas police station seeking registration of an FIR against Sarma under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to promoting enmity, making assertions prejudicial to national integration, issuing statements conducive to public mischief, and outraging religious feelings. The Delhi Police have said the complaint is under examination and that no FIR has been registered so far.
The complaint cites a series of public statements by the Assam Chief Minister in which he allegedly urged people to “trouble Miyas”, a derogatory term used for Bengali-origin Muslims in the state, and claimed that four to five lakh “Miya” voters would be removed from electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision process.
Mander said such remarks were neither casual nor abstract, but targeted a specific religious and linguistic community, dehumanised them, and openly called for their suffering and political exclusion. He warned that when language of hatred is combined with state power and allowed administrative impunity, it becomes dangerous.
He further said statements made by constitutional authorities have direct consequences on the ground, legitimising harassment, emboldening violence and creating fear among already marginalised communities. According to him, the rhetoric risked normalising collective punishment of Muslims in Assam, citing instances where people have allegedly begun echoing the Chief Minister’s words, including videos showing refusal to pay rickshaw pullers fair wages.
Questioning the Chief Minister’s remarks, Mander asked whether it was the role of a Chief Minister to “make people suffer”, as allegedly stated by Sarma. On claims that large numbers of “Miya” voters would be removed from electoral rolls, he said such assertions amounted to an attack on the constitutional right to vote and struck at the core of democracy. He cautioned that electoral verification exercises must not be turned into communal exercises.
Mander also expressed concern over the lack of institutional response, stating that neither authorities nor the Election Commission appeared to be reacting to what he described as open threats. He termed the situation deeply troubling from a constitutional perspective.
Mander told Maktoob Media, even if individuals were suspected to be foreign nationals, due legal process and inter-governmental coordination were mandatory, warning that any other approach amounted to extrajudicial action against civilians.
He also cautioned that the Special Intensive Revision process could be misused, saying there was a real danger of administrative procedures being selectively deployed to disenfranchise Bengali Muslims, drawing attention to Assam’s recent history of exclusionary exercises.
Responding to Sarma’s allegation that he had undermined the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Mander rejected the charge, stating that he had no role in implementing the NRC and was only involved in raising concerns about due process, humanitarian safeguards and the rights of vulnerable people. He said criticism of the NRC arose from its impact on ordinary residents, pointing out that around 19 lakh people were excluded, many of them poor and long-settled residents.
Mander said his involvement during the NRC process was in assisting those most affected, particularly the poor and those intimidated by the state. He added that he was appointed by the National Human Rights Commission to facilitate legal aid, assist affected people and work inside a detention centre, which he described as a “jail within a jail”.
He said the conditions he witnessed there were shocking and that families were being separated. After submitting a report to the NHRC and receiving no response, he resigned and continued his work independently under Karwan-e-Mohabbat to document and highlight the situation.
On what he expects from the Delhi Police, Mander said the matter involved constitutional accountability and that the law should take its course through impartial investigation. He added that if the police failed to act, the issue warranted judicial scrutiny, including possible suo motu cognisance by the courts, and said he was prepared to pursue legal remedies up to the Supreme Court.
Addressing Muslim communities in Assam, Mander said they were not alone and that the Constitution remained on their side, adding that while regimes of hate may not endure, resistance to injustice does.
