Report on potholes: Karnataka HC directs BBMP to submit action plan

The Karnataka High Court has directed two chief engineers of the BBMP to participate in the proceedings on March 9, pertaining to a PIL on potholes in the city.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka passed this direction after perusing a report submitted by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority (KSLSA).

The report stated that 5,435 responses were received from citizens regarding potholes and issues relating to footpaths. The KSLSA had created a WhatsApp group to receive complaints with photographs and videos. A majority of the complaints were regarding footpaths (3,531 responses) concerning encroachments/blocking and even non-existing footpaths.

The report stated that despite the court’s direction, the BBMP has failed to submit documents on estimation, technical sanction and photos taken before and after the work regarding 74 roads, which the civic agency claimed to be pothole-free.

As the BBMP did not co-operate, KSLSA could not assess the quality of the roads with assistance from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials. The KSLSA had taken up the exercise in terms of the orders of the court on December 17, 2020.

“Before the corporation comes out with an action plan, which the counsel for the BBMP states will be filed within four weeks, it will be appropriate if a senior officer of the corporation studies the report.

The counsel for the corporation has given the names of Siddegowda and Prahlad, who are chief engineers of road infrastructure of the corporation. We direct both of them to remain present through video conferencing next Tuesday at 11.40 am.

The officers will have to inform us about the technique that the corporation proposes to use for filling potholes,” the court said.

The PIL was filed in 2015 by Vijayan Menon and others. The petition sought for direction to the BBMP to submit an action taken report on roads that had ‘killer potholes’.