In the wake of an acute water crisis in Bengaluru, tech professionals in the city have gradually started returning to their hometowns temporarily as calls for companies to switch to work-from-home mode grow. Educational institutes in the IT hub are being advised to resume online classes to save water and reduce the burden on students.
With the water shortage situation worsening every passing day and temperature touching 40 degrees Celsius, multiple citizens and citizen groups have, on social media, urged the Congress-led state government to make work from home mandatory for IT companies in Bengaluru city and also to give orders for online classes for children from home.
“With sizzling hot days and severe water crisis prevailing in Bengaluru city and no major rains in sight as of now for the month, it's high time that government of Karnataka considers work from home option till the monsoon begins,” read a post on X by a group of weather enthusiasts, who go by the name Karnataka Weather (@Bnglrweatherman).
Citizens' Agenda for Bengaluru, another group on X, wrote, “Water crisis - online classes and work from home? If students and employees are allowed to work from home, many will go back to their hometowns, reducing pressure on the city!”
Several others pointed out that the demand for water would come down if employees worked from home as many of them may consider returning to their hometowns. Some IT professionals have left the city and temporarily moved to their hometowns.
“The water crisis forced us to move temporarily. Despite this, we’re still paying a hefty monthly rent of Rs 25,000 for a flat we cannot live in,” Deccan Herald quoted a person as saying.
The water crisis has gripped Karnataka's capital city after thousands of borewells dried up in the region.
Moreover, the chances of respite seem bleak in the coming weeks as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that the state will likely witness above-normal temperatures this summer -- from March to May. The weather department has forecast heatwave conditions in north interior parts of the state in the coming months.
“We are not having any cloudy weather and therefore, the temperature is rising but there is a probability of normal rainfall as well,” A Prasad, Scientist, India Meteorological Department (IMD), told PTI. “No rainfall happened in February. And it is mainly because of this El Nino condition that this time we had an early summer-like situation. Though the summer begins in March, its effect has been felt from February itself for the last few years. It's also because of global warming,” he said.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said on Monday that the state had not witnessed such a drought in the last three decades. He added that the next two months are “very important.”
Shivakumar noted that the Congress government is making all possible efforts to manage the crisis and supply water to the citizens.
“In the last 30-40 years we had not seen such drought; though there was drought earlier we had never declared such a large number of taluks as drought-affected,” Shivakumar said.
Karnataka has already declared drought in 223 out of 240 taluks. Out of the total, 196 are categorised as severely drought-affected regions.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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