Advocates’ group inspecting roads on High Court directive

better roads

An independent, paralegal team is checking the state of Bengaluru roads from Wednesday, and reporting its findings to the High Court.

The court recently asked for a team to verify BBMP’s claim that city roads are in good condition. It was hearing a public interest case filed by citizen activist Vijayan Menon in 2015.

“Usually, BBMP officials give tick marks to themselves,” Menon, also a member of Citizens Action Forum, told Metrolife.

The idea behind the PIL was to empower ward committees, comprising citizens and officials, Menon says. Srinivas Alavilli, co-founder and coordinator, Citizens for Bengaluru, says a strong ward committee system can ensure public works are executed properly.

V Ravichandar, urban expert and former member of the BBMP restructuring committee, says BBMP’s internal audit system has not proven effective. “There is a mechanism for in-house audit of engineering works. It is housed under the technical advisory group. The fact that the court had to intervene to do an external audit shows the internal audit mechanisms have failed,” Ravichandar says. A resident welfare association Metrolife spoke to is optimistic about the intervention.

Abdul Aleem, president of Changemakers of Kanakapura Road, says the BBMP’s internal audit team isn’t doing its job.

“There is collusion among officials inside and they issue whatever certificates are needed,” says Aleem.

Who is on the panel?

The new road-monitoring group, formed on a High Court directive and comprising advocates and paralegal volunteers, started work on January 7. It is inspecting roads, and will report its findings to the court on February 5. The court will hear the case on February 9. H Shashidhara Shetty, member-secretary, Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, tells Metrolife, “We will look into encroachments, why roads remain dug up, and what causes potholes. We will also look at whether the cost and quality match.”He says that this work will be done in coordination with Bengaluru Urban District Legal Services Authority. “We have a list, and we have also asked the five petitioners to suggest a list of roads to be inspected. We will take the help of engineers from the National Highway Authority of India or the army. This will give us an independent assessment,” adds Shashidhara. These volunteers and advocates will conduct the inspections pro bono. To complain about bad roads, citizens can contact the paralegal team on [e-mail] or call 080-22111714 and 080-22111729.