Brand Bengaluru got a beating once again, as sustained heavy overnight rainfall — the biggest in this year — brought the city to a crawling halt and reinforced that sinking feeling as even posh residential complexes and IT parks found themselves submerged on Monday.

For sure, the impact of the rainfall proved one thing — that Bangalore and Bangaloreans have not learnt any lesson as the natural event and the damage it caused to the city — uprooting of trees, electric poles twisted, vehicles submerged, house collapses, and low-lying areas flooded — continued for yet another year.

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And this is the result of the first such heavy spell lasting some six hours, the biggest so far, and the monsoon is just a few days away. One shudders to think of what is going to be the fate of Bengaluru and whether it will stay afloat is the worried wonderment of a resident of Manyata Techpark, a IT hub that becomes a lake every rainy season, sitting as it does on stormwater drains that are blocked because of the construction of the buildings without any consideration of water pathways and storm water drains. There has been a spate of house collapses and there is a report of one casualty.

The Monday menace of nature will surely be recurring given the alerts issued by the IMD that has predicted moderate to heavy rainfall till Friday.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued an orange warning for Karnataka and a red alert for multiple regions within the state, including North Interior, South Interior, and Coastal Karnataka, forecasting heavy to extremely heavy rainfall over the next two days. Goa, Madhya Maharashtra, and the Konkan region are also likely to witness “very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall” between May 20 and 22, while Mumbai is expected to receive moderate to heavy showers from May 21.

Now, this only increases the anxiety and worry of the Bengaluru residents as they experience the taste of what it is to come in the coming days.

If residents decried apathy of the civic authorities, state Home Minister G Parameshwara expressed his frustration and anger at the residents for ignoring their side of the bargain – in keeping the city clean and not blocking sewages and roadside water paths – with garbage, plastic and waste paper that block rain water from passing into the sewer.

Mohandas Pai, Padma Shri Awardee, and former CFP and Board Member at Infosys, launched a blistering attack against the Congress government for failing Bengaluru and smashing the Brand Bengaluru by doing nothing for the city in the two years they have been in power in the state.

“We are once again seeing the spectacle of BJP blaming the Congress and the Congress blaming the BJP — both governments should take the responsibility for the current mess and do something so that the investors don’t take adverse decisions,” he said.

“The same place, monsoon after monsoon is inundated,” Pai said, indicating that no lessons have been learnt and people continue to suffer. “The concerned officials must be sacked,” he demanded with a sense of frustrated anger that most citizens in Bengaluru feel.

Just one spell of heavy rains — according to the Karnataka State Disaster Monitoring Cell, Kengeri recorded the highest rainfall at 132 mm, closely followed by Vaderahalli in North Bengaluru with 131.5 mm. Multiple areas across the city received over 100 mm of rain. The city’s average rainfall over the past 24 hours stood at 105.5 mm, as recorded at 8.30 am on Monday, which is the highest this year.

Now, one continuous spell of heavy rain created havoc. In itself it can be dealt with. But what is the point of the citizens is that this is the same story that gets repeated, year after year, which Pai spelt out, reflecting the sentiments of most of the citizens. The government, however, maintained that things were not as bad as being painted by the opposition and the media.

Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said, “Rains should come, they are good for the farmers. I had heard about one death, and I sincerely condole and my heartfelt sympathies are with the family of the deceased. But officials are working very hard on the ground.” He said he was deeply concerned by the havoc caused by relentless rains in Bengaluru and that he was closely monitoring the situation.

“The issues we face today are not new. They have been ignored for years, across governments and administrations. The only difference now is – we are working to solve them. Not with temporary fixes, but with long-term, sustainable solutions.”

State Home Minister G Parameshwara admitted that “every year this has been happening. But we are getting the clogged drains cleared and things will improve.”

For the present, though, the citizens are facing the worst.

Many areas were submerged leading to traffic jams and disruption in many parts of the city.

Several low-lying areas like Bommanahalli, and HRBR Layout, experienced flooding. And the city witnessed water-logging.