Karnataka HC Calls For Appearance Of BBMP Officers For Solving Road Potholes Problem

On February 10, the court had asked BBMP to submit an action plan for removal of potholes on a priority basis in the city of Bengaluru and the time frame within which the said action plan shall be implemented.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty said "A very exhaustive report has been submitted by the legal services authority, prepared with help from several stakeholders. The exercise was undertaken in terms of order dated Dec 17, 2020, passed by this court. To enable the citizens to respond a whatsapp chat bot was created by the authority. Several meetings were held with stakeholders about 5435 potholes and footpaths issues were received from citizens which have been collated."

It added "Before municipal corporation comes out with an action plan which counsel appearing for the corporation says will be filed within four weeks, it will be appropriate if a senior officer of the corporation studies the report."

Following which the counsel appearing for the civic body submitted names of two Chief Engineers of roads/infrastructure department of the Municipal Corporation.

Accordingly, the court directed both of them (officers) to remain present before court on next Tuesday at 11.40 pm. The officers will have to inform the court the techniques which the corporation proposes to use for filling in potholes.

The bench also directed the KSLSA to web host on its website the report submitted by it to the court and suggested the BBMP to do the same on its website. It orally said "So that citizens can access it."

The court had in December 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 directions were given while hearing a public interest litigation filed by one PIL filed by Vijayan Menon in the year 2015, highlighting the problem of bad condition of roads in the city.