Mahima
The Karnataka High Court directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to appear with an action plan for repairing potholes, footpaths, and damaged roads in the city.
The HC also directed the officers to concoct their action plan after studying the report put together by Karnataka State Legal Services Authority (KSLSA). It said,
“Before the 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.”
The counsel for the Municipal Corporation submitted names of two Chief Engineers of the roads/infrastructure department and the court ordered the engineers to mark their presence. They were to do this to brief the court about techniques recommended for filling the potholes.
The division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and S Vishwajith Shetty commented,
“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 an order dated Dec 17, 2020, passed by this court. To enable the citizens to respond a WhatsApp chat box 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.”
Earlier Karnataka High Court had asked the BBMP to come up with an action plan for the removal of potholes in Bengaluru on a priority basis and the time frame within which the implementation of the said plan could be anticipated.
The Court also directed KSLSA to WebHost the report submitted to the court on its website “so that citizens can access it.”