'Why Can't BBMP See Recurring Potholes In Localities Where Common Man Lives?': Karnataka High Court On Road Maintenance In Bengaluru

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said, "BBMP shall also ensure that quality is maintained while filling up the potholes because it is noticed that the potholes which are filled up, again becomes a pothole, after two to three months."

Counsel for BBMP informed the court that "We have entered into an agreement with a single agency to fill up potholes. Every day we are attending to filling up potholes in the entire city. However, because of heavy rains, we could not achieve the filling up of potholes. Wherever necessary we are doing it. We will file a status report with all photographs."

To this the bench orally observed:

"The problem is the lens which the corporation is using is not very transparent. In the sense, through that lens, you see potholes only on this Kumara Krupa road, the road which is going in front of 7 ministers' bungalow, the road which is going to the high court. But that lens does not see potholes of other localities, where the common man lives."

It added, "Please do it, clear all potholes."

The bench made this observation while hearing a petition filed by Vijayan Menon in the year 2015, highlighting the problem of the bad condition of roads in the city.

Earlier, a very exhaustive report was submitted by the Karnataka Legal Services Authority, prepared with help from several stakeholders. The exercise was undertaken in terms of Court's order dated Dec 17, 2020. To enable the citizens to respond, a WhatsApp chatbot was created by the authority. Several meetings were held with stakeholders about 5435 potholes and footpath issues were received from citizens which have been collated.

The court in its order said, "Counsel for BBMP prays for two weeks time to submit a status report, he has assured this court that BBMP is making all possible endeavours to ensure that potholes are filled at an early date. Time of two weeks is granted to file a status report. He will also file all documents relating to the procedure adopted to filling up potholes."

The matter will be next heard on November 11.

Case Title: Vijayan Menon v. Secretary Urban Development Department

Case No: WP 42927/2015