Road humps 'unsettle' PWD minister

Public Works Minister C M Udasi was cornered by none other than a legislator of his party during a discussion on road humps in the Legislative Council on Tuesday.

Referring to the humps laid on the Bellary-Ananthpur and Bellary-Hiriyur road, N Thippanna (BJP) during Question Hour said the reply furnished to him by the PWD was incorrect.

“I have been provided with false information. The reply says there are 13 humps between Bellary and Ananthpur and all are scientifically constructed. But the fact is that there are 163 humps which my personal assistant even counted to cross check the reply,” he said.

Thippanna said even the reply pertaining to the Bellary-Hiriyur stretch was false. According to the reply, there are 49 scientific humps on this stretch of 149.25 km. He said there were 143 speed breakers and they were a set of six rumblers each.

“This would take the number of road humps to 858. Though the department had assured to remove all the unscientific humps, no such attempt had been made till now,” Thippanna said.

Several JD(S) and Congress members joined the issue and expressed their concern on the unscientific humps and demanded that they should be removed at the earliest. Some members said a majority of the humps on Bangalore roads were unscientific, putting the motorists at risk.

Minister for Higher Education V S Acharya too joined the chorus and requested Chairperson D H Shankaramurthy to remove the two unscientific humps near Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha. The Chairperson replied that he had asked the BBMP authorities to remove the humps.

Udasi said his reply concerned only with the scientific humps laid by the government and he promised that 1,785 unscientific humps across the State will be cleared in three months. He said the task requires police assistance also as people in some parts of the State were against removal of the humps.