JOIN US'Total sham': HC picks holes in BBMP's pothole claims
The Karnataka High Court on Thursday came down heavily on the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) after the civic body claimed that almost all potholes in the city have been filled. The court termed the status report on potholes a "total sham" and asked the BBMP chief engineer to appear before it on February 7.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi posed a volley of questions to the counsel appearing for the civic body, who made the claims on potholes. "Are you residing in Bengaluru? Why do potholes erupt after every rain? Whoever uses these roads is aware of the quality of the work,” the bench orally told the advocate.
In its report, the BBMP claimed that potholes along 1,314 km out of 1,344 km of major roads and those along 12,046 km out of 12,527 km of roads in zonal ward limits have been repaired. The BBMP counsel said a majority of city roads have been repaired. He also said that city roads cannot bear the traffic load of the day and that frequent digging by agencies have resulted in bad roads.
"What do you do to ensure that repair work is done after BWSSB, Bescom and GAIL Ltd cut the roads for various works? Have you imposed any penalty? We will direct registration of FIR against the chief engineer of BBMP," the court said.
The court said it is not satisfied with the status report. "The BBMP shall inform us about the technology being adopted for the repair of city roads and whether they have engaged any experts or outside agencies in the construction and repair of roads. The procedure adopted by the BBMP shall be brought on record and the policy, if any, for permitting the agencies or bodies to cut the road and repair them in a time-bound manner shall also be placed on record," the bench said.
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