BENGALURU: Raising their voice against civic apathy, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members performed puja to the large crater that has developed on a white-topped stretch at Kensington Junction near Ulsoor Lake, which is just 3 km from Vidhana Soudha. The members decorated the crater as a mark of protest.
“To build 1 km of white-topped road, Rs 15 crore is spent. And yet potholes and road-caving incidents are reported even before the defective liability period of the road gets over,” AAP state organising secretary Mohan Dasari said.
“We demand a quality check on all white-topped roads by the IISc engineering wing and also a Lokayukta probe on the amount spent on the project in Bengaluru,” said Dasari, adding that the party will lodge a formal complaint with the Lokayukta in this regard.
The AAP members claimed that there is a lot of corruption in the name of white-topping. “Bengaluru is like the hen that lays golden eggs for politicians. Even after spending Rs 15 crore for the construction of only 1 km of road, it has collapsed,” said Anil Nachappa, city media coordinator, AAP.
Attributing the cave-in to leakage of pipes and loose soil, BBMP top officials said measures like pouring wet mix are taken up and the filling of the cavity on the road is done and it will have to be allowed for few days to settle and the patchwork has been barricaded. However, the officials of Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) said the project was completed one-and-a-half-years ago and it appears that contractors failed to fix the bottom with aggregates before concreting. “Heavy vehicles plying may have resulted in the cavity exposing the shoddy work by the white-topping contractor in Ulsoor,” said a BWSSB official.