Protesting the delay in filling up potholes and highlighting road users' plight, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday staged a unique protest by holding 'Pothole Habba' in various parts of the city.
AAP workers garlanded the potholes and planted paddy saplings to draw the civic authorities' attention to the poor condition of roads.
Referring to the state government's own admission that it had spent a staggering Rs 20,000 crore on repairing roads in Bengaluru in the last five years, the party's state convenor, Prithvi Reddy, said that it was ironic that roads in the city were so pathetic. "Deaths and accidents due to potholes have become common," he said.
Seeking accountability for the Rs 20,000 crore, Reddy demanded a white paper on details of road repair in Bengaluru.
"A whopping Rs 20,000 crore cannot be spent on such poor roadwork without the involvement of local elected representatives. The expenditure must be investigated as taxpayers want to know where exactly their tax money has gone. If the government does not act, we will knock on the doors of the judiciary for justice,” Reddy said.
Mohan Dasari, president of AAP's Bengaluru city unit, accused the government of playing with people's lives by not taking safety measures.
"The potholes stand like the monuments of corruption," he said.
Published 20 October 2021, 20:19 IST