B A Samvartha/The Hindu

Mangalore, May 30: The rain on Wednesday has inundated houses of the Kudubis at the Kudubi-Padavu.

The Kudubis allege that rainwater does not flow into the drains as mud has been dumped into the drains and waterways.

According to the people in Kudubi-Padavu, the contractors who are working on the Mangalore Special Economic Zone (MSEZ) have been dumping mud just outside the acquired land since May 17.

The dumping of the mud continued even after the Kudubis complained to Deputy Commissioner V. Ponnuraj on May 19. The people told the Deputy Commissioner that the dumping of mud was blocking the natural waterways and would cause flooding during rains.

“On Wednesday, it rained from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Kudubi-Padavu and there was water all around the house as there was no place for water to flow,” said Devaki, a resident of Kudubi-Padavu. Her grandmother Chennamma told The Hindu that she had never in the past seen such flooding. All these years, whenever it rained there was no problem of inundation as all the rainwater would flow into the agricultural fields.

“Now the MESZ authorities have acquired the agricultural fields and filled it up with soil. This filling has increased the height of the land and no water can flow there and all the water gets accumulated here,” she added.

Pushpa, another resident, expressed fear of their houses collapsing if it would rain heavily once again and there was not room for free flow of rainwater into the drains. “Our houses are constructed using mud and they will collapse if the place is flooded with rainwater,” she said.

Bazil Nazereth, another resident whose house is located near the newly constructed houses in the acquired land by MSEZ, said

“There was flooding even in the land in which the MSEZ authorities have acquired. They shut all the natural waterways and there is no way for the water to flow from their land also.”

Some of the wells that had gone dry as borewells have been dug in the land on which the Mangalore Special Economi Zone is coming up. On Wednesday night, the rainwater gushed into these dry wells.

However Deputy Commissioner Ponnuraj said as per the report he has received the dumping of mud by the MSEZ contractors has not caused the flooding but the cause lies elsewhere. The Kudubis live in a low-lying area.