BENGALURU: The overemphasis on infrastructure and poor focus on healthcare have cost the city dear, new BBMP chief N Manjunatha Prasad told corporators on Tuesday after their fulminations against the civic body’s handling of the pandemic.

Corporators from across party lines came down on BBMP during a council meeting, calling its response to Covid-19 a failure. Prasad, who is serving his second stint as the BBMP commissioner after a gap of three years, retorted that during his previous tenure, he repeatedly highlighted the need to strengthen the civic healthcare infrastructure, but councillors ignored his advice.
“During the previous stint, I kept emphasising that we should pay attention to healthcare facilities and improve them, but you were more interested in the city’s infrastructure projects [roads]. We did not act then and are now facing problems,” Prasad said during the council meeting.
After initial success against coronavirus, Bengaluru saw infections surge in July. The heavy caseload — as on Monday, active infections stood at 33,816 and deaths at 918 — has exposed shortcomings in the local health system that went unnoticed for long.
“The number of cases is increasing every day and we have not seen any serious action taken by the civic administration in handling the crisis,” said Sampath Raj, councillor of Devara Jeevanahalli.
Abdul Wajid, councillor of Manorayanapalya, said the sharp increase in cases had left residents seriously concerned. “After the easing of the lockdown, the numbers have gone up drastically. People are very worried. Every other person appears like a potential, asymptomatic carrier of the virus,” Wajid said.
Umesh Shetty, who represents Govidarajanagar, questioned the BBMP commissioner over poor arrangements. Prasad said the situation only reflected the lack of seriousness showed by the council in addressing the issues at hand. “The council was always keen on infrastructure and garbage issues; health was the least concern and only 2 per cent of the budget was set aside for healthcare facilities,” he said. “Nobody ever imagined something of this sort would happen. Today, if we are lagging behind, it’s because there was no money allocated for health facilities, and now, we are gearing up for it.”