Karnataka govt struggles as coronavirus erupts in 'Bengaluru Triangle'

A triangular area spread across three zones — East, West, South — is powering the Covid-19 caseload in Bengaluru, with officials blaming uncontrolled movement of inter-state travellers and a lack of administrative oversight over key wards for the spurt in cases.

The eruption in this area is behind the surge in cases in the Central Business District (CBD), which is home to many iconic places including MG Road.

Here, in this “Bengaluru Triangle”, where the outbreak is more pronounced, the administration’s efforts are floundering.

Follow live updates on the coronavirus here

Officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have been unable to control cases in this area because of the ambiguity over which zone or ward has jurisdictional oversight.

The triangle is said to extend from Chamrajpet Ward in the west to Jayanagar in the south to as far north as MG Road in the Shantalanagar Ward. According to the War Room, at least 918 cases have been reported from the wards in this triangle over the last 10 days. But this data has gaps.

Newly minted BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad acknowledged that the outbreak along the zonal borders is becoming problematic.

“Not only because these areas have a high population density, but we have inter-state travellers on commercial activities importing the cases into these high density areas,” he said.

“Some 70 percent of the spread has been due to people coming from Rajasthan, but commercial visitors from Mumbai and Chennai have also played a role,” Prasad added.

Disease radiating outwards

Data shows that the contagious disease is radiating outwards from these zonal hotspot wards to other locations, many of them residential, such as Jayanagar.

Shantala Ward in the East Zone is another area of concern. Corporator M B Dwarkanath said his ward has been struggling to contain the outbreak.

According to the BBMP War Room, the ward has seen some 457 cases over the last 10 days.Local health officials dispute these figures, but Dwarkanath said that is beside the point.

“No control is being exercised over the movement of people between zones and wards,” he said.

The corporator pointed out that a majority of people employed in the commercial areas of the historic market district — Chamrajpet, K R Market, Dharmaraya Temple and Sampangirama Nagar — live in his ward or in the neighbouring Shanthinagar Ward.

“There is nothing to separate Shantala Ward from other badly-hit areas. There is no screening of people at all,” he said. He added that inter-state travellers from other states visiting Brigade Road and MG Road were adding to the
spread. In Chamarajpet Ward, which has seen 111 cases in the last 10 days, MLA B A Zameer Ahmed linked the problem to the Chennai port area.

“Data shows that slightly over 50% of all our cases have happened in Anandapuram, a sub-locality of the ward, which has a large and transient population travelling in from Tamil Nadu,” he said.

“There is no checking of the people at all who come on commercial goods trucks racing in from Tamil Nadu,” he added. The BBMP Commissioner expressed confidence that increased testing would solve the crisis.

“We have a mandate to conduct 43,000 tests in the city. About 80% of that commitment will be in the Central Business District,” he said.