'Imagine People Dying Because Of Potholes!' : Karnataka High Court Asks BBMP To Submit Action Plan Bengaluru Road

A division bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice M G Uma observed "First there must be a will on part of BBMP to ensure that roads in Bangalore city will be pothole free. There has to be determination and resolution by the BBMP."

Referring to a recent accident reported of a medical student dying in an accident caused due to a bad road. The bench said "Imagine people dying because of potholes on roads. Imagine the plight of the family."

In its order the bench noted "All though several orders have been made in this writ petition the fact remains that potholes are still pestering on streets of Bengaluru not only on major arterial roads but even in other smaller roads. It is public knowledge that riders of two-wheelers as well as four wheelers have died during the course of avoidance of potholes while proceeding on roads. Despite several directions issued in this writ petition, the problem still remains."

The bench orally said "We don't want to see any status reports. We want a time table from BBMP, saying this is our resolution to make Bangalore pothole free." Give us a date when this will be achieved? We go on passing order and nothing is happening?

The bench has directed the BBMP to file an affidavit of the concerned officer with regards to the time frame within which the potholes shall be removed, bearing in mind priority areas such as Central business districts (CBD) and major arterial roads and other important roads in the city and thereafter roads in residential areas etc. The potholes on the ring road and on the flyovers also need to be removed. The affidavit will be an undertaking given to the court. It has to be filed before the court by March 2.

Justice Nagarathna noted "It is needless to observe that object and purpose of direction is to impress upon the BBMP to first make a resolution and strong determination to ensure that roads of Bangalore city, are made pothole free, so that there is free movement of vehicles and public on roads/streets of Bengaluru city, which is part of the Fundamental Right under 19 (1) (d) and Article 21 of the Constitution."

It added "Therefore, it is constitutional obligation of the respondent BBMP to ensure that life and limb of citizens are not threatened owing to potholes on the roads and streets of Bengaluru, due to bad maintenance or lack of maintenance by BBMP, which is cast with the duty of maintenance of roads/streets and footpaths in the city under provisions Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act." The BBMP is also directed to state the material to be used for filling up of the potholes and the manner in which it shall be done.

In the previous hearing the bench had directed Karnataka State Legal Services Authority in coordination with Secretary of Bengaluru Urban district legal services authority to create a panel of para-legal volunteers and advocates who are willing to do the job assigned to them. Secretary shall identify various public streets in various public streets in different parts within the jurisdiction of BBMP and panel advocates and pra-legal volunteers who are willing to do pro-bono work, shall be requested by the secretary to visit public streets to ascertain the conditions of the streets. Panel advocates and para-legal volunteers, shall act as Commissioners of this Court and submit their reports to the secretary along with photographs."

The direction was given during the hearing of a public interest litigation filed by one Vijayan Menon in the year 2015, highlighting the problem of bad condition of roads in the city.