Amid the lockdown and people caught between the tension surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and the soaring temperature, the rain gods provided some respite to the people of Hubballi on Tuesday.
A sudden downpour coupled with gusty winds, lightning and thunder brought down the temperature, which was hovering around 34 degrees Celsius in Hubballi for the last several days, by a few degrees much to the relief of the residents.
Although there was not much vehicular movement because of the lockdown imposed as a preventive measure to combat COVID-19, some motorcyclists who had ventured out were caught off-guard. While several of them took shelter under the roof extensions of shops that remained closed since Monday, others chose to ride it out in the rain.
The showers also washed the streets of the city but at the same time exposed municipal apathy as plastic waste was seen piling up in the storm-water drains as regular cleaning had not been taken up in several localities. Near Myadar Oni, where a municipal building was recently demolished, the rainwater pushed the plastic waste in the storm-water drain up onto the road. The rain that lasted for over half an hour also exposed the lack of a proper drainage network adjacent to the recently laid roads. As some of the roads have been dug up for relaying, the rain left them waterlogged.
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