Taking cognisance of poor conditions of roads, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the BBMP for failing to fill the potholes in the city.In a harsh observation against the thick skinned BBMP officials and engineers it said that it is better to close down the BBMP and said it expects the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to ensure that there is zero pothole in the city by Thursday.
It should be zero potholes by tomorrow. It is your job and you have an entire night. How you will go about it, is left to you. Bangalore city has to be put back on its glory from every angle. If you cannot do it, then we would take a call,” the Bench observed.
Incidentally, the Supreme Court had on Tuesday expressed shock that some States still dispute the fact that potholes have led to accidental deaths on roads across the country as the data submitted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had stated that pothole-related accidents claimed 3,597 lives in 2017 in the country.
BBMP fails to produce records
“Don’t give lame Answers”.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice S.G. Pandit made this oral observation during the hearing of a PIL petition, filed in 2015 by Vijayan Menon and three others pointing out pathetic conditions of the roads in and around the city of Bengaluru and particularly, the menace of potholes and ditches.The divisional bench asked the BBMP officials to present the measurement book related to pothole repair works carried out in any of the 198 wards.As the officials failed to present the records and said the records is done after the work is done this answer has enraged the court which made the serious observation and said,Do not give lame answers to the court we are not here to listen to your excuses.How will you start the work without measuring the size of potholes? If so how do you pass the running bill to the contractors? The court will not dance to the tunes of your engineers and contractors.If you are unable to complete the task let us shut down the BBMP,later we will instruct the Chief secretary to take over the Bruhat Bangalalore Mahanagara Palike.The authorities think that they can work on their whims and fantasies the court knows how to deal with such thick skinned officials.All the potholes should be filled by Thursday September 20.We do not know how you will achieve the task.The potholes are the main reason for traffic snarls causing much inconvenience.Are your officials not ashamed? the bench said.
The officials of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had a tough time on Wednesday as they could not bring to the Karnataka High Court even a single measurement book related to pothole repair works carried out in any of the 198 wards within the four-hour deadline given by the court.But in the evening as the court wanted to see the measurement book for the work done on the potholes, but as all our engineers were busy in the field, we were unable to produce it. By evening, the documents were submitted to the court a BBMP official told.
There are dangerous and pathetic size of potholes in the city.There are pathetic crater size potholes in,Magadi road,Vijayanagar,Rajajinagar, yeshwanthpur,Hebbal,Yelahanka,
A team of traffic policemen across city has gone the extra mile to ease vehicular movement in their jurisdiction by filling crater type dangerous potholes,throwing up its hands saying it could fix the road only after rain stopped,the bbmp officials failed but the bengaluru traffic cops plunged into action, dirtying their hands and filling the craters.
The policemens, led by inspectors across city, have been lauded on social media for their efforts.Motorists have been taking photographs of traffic cops filling potholes with bare hands or navigating earth-digging equipment and posting them online.Our priority is to ensure seamless flow of traffic. So we consider everything, from filling potholes to pushing aside a vehicle that has broken down, our duty cops said.
Additional commissioner of police, traffic, R.Hitendra, commended the extra mile work taken by the cops in the busiest traffic junctions of the city and it’s important to ensure that movement of vehicles is not disturbed. Our cops never waits for others to address issues.During the last monsoon when drains and roads of many areas were inundated, our cops of various traffic police station would stand near the drains and divert vehicles to make sure there were no mishaps he added.
In May this year, the civic body had identified 5,800 potholes and submitted a report to the chief minister.In August, the number went up to 21,287. Officials had then claimed that they had attended to 20,169 of the identified potholes.At present, there are 1,600 potholes in the city, as per the Palike.
