BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after the Karnataka High Court allowed its request to give it three more days to complete filling all potholes in the city. The request was considered by the division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice S G Pandit after BBMP submitted that it had filled up 899 potholes overnight in all eight zones. Considering the significance of the case, the judges heard the matter even during the lunch break.
When the hearing began, the court posed questions to BBMP’s counsel. “What did you do yesterday? How many potholes were filled up last night? What was the size of potholes that were filled?” In reply, BBMP’s counsel V Sreenidhi submitted that 899 potholes were filled overnight.
The court then observed that the potholes are a result of BBMP’s laxity, and added, “You make the number of potholes zero by Monday. We hope it will be zero as there is three days’ time. If the number of potholes is more than zero, then there will be a problem. We will then want to know the names of contractors and engineers.” The court then asked the registrar (judicial) to keep photocopies of the first and the last page of the measurement books of the pothole works.
Reiterating that potholes are one of the minor issues the BBMP has to attend to, the court added that there are several other issues that need attention. The court also observed that Bengaluru has started looking something better and was regaining its glory. It didn’t look proper on the part of BBMP to let people file PILs to settle every civic issue and force the court to pass orders on issues like flexes, potholes, solid waste management, widening of roads, which were basic duties of the BBMP, the court said. “One thing we are sure is that your engineers are not attending to public duty, resulting in bad quality of roads. They are answerable to the public,” the bench said.
NO RECURRENCE
BBMP submitted an affidavit stating that continuous monitoring will be undertaken to ensure there is no recurrence of potholes in the city. In the affidavit, M R Venkatesh, BBMP Engineer-in-Chief (in-charge), stated that 1,655 potholes were yet to be attended to as on Wednesday. Between September 19 and 20, BBMP, in its eight zones and under the jurisdiction of its road infrastructure division, has filled 899 potholes as of 6 am on Thursday. On September 18, there were 1,655 potholes to be filled in eight zones of BBMP.