BBMP’s failure to fill all potholes riles HC

The High Court of Karnataka strongly rebuked the BBMP for its failure to fill all potholes in the city by October 23 and rejected the civic body’s claim of considerable progress.

A division bench led by Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, hearing a PIL petition on potholes, noted that the BBMP’s incompetence was affecting the court’s functioning as other matters were held up. The deadline was set by the court at the last hearing.

The court got to know the BBMP didn’t meet the deadline when the petitioner identified at least 43 potholes. Clearly disappointed, the court said it had expected the BBMP to submit that the city was free of potholes.

The court rejected the BBMP counsel’s submission that the civic body was still filling potholes and that there had been considerable progress.

The bench ordered the BBMP to fill the 43 potholes by 1.30 pm.

The civic body later informed the court that it had filled only 14 of them and that 24 were in areas where the BBMP had dug up roads.

“If the BBMP cannot do it, some other agency will do it and this will come through an order after announcing BBMP as a failure and it will come with a heavy price,” the court said.

Observing that the civic body had proved its incompetence, the court further orally said: “If BBMP does not work, it does not mean the city will shut down. It only means BBMP will shut down.”

Inspection tomorrow

The court directed the two-member commission it had appointed earlier to inspect the areas where the BBMP was filling potholes and submit a report on Thursday. It asked the BBMP to cooperate in the inspection.

The court noted that the pothole case was affecting the adjudication of other matters. It said it would hear the pothole case on Saturdays and orally observed that the BBMP commissioner must pay the allowance of court officers on such days.

The court asked senior counsel Aditya Sondhi to request the coordination committee headed by the chief secretary to take the pothole issue on priority.