BMC claims 91 per cent potholes complaints attended and fixed

Mumbai: Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday filed a compliance report in the Bombay high court saying that from June 10 to July 30, it  has attended 91 per cent of the complaints received pertaining to potholes.

The report contained ward-wise details. The court had on the last hearing asked the BMC to state how many complaints it has attended from June. Accordingly On Wednesday, BMC’s Counsel Anil Sakhare put forth the report.

The report stated that in past one and half month it has received 1,642 complaints through various mediums like emails, phone calls, website and it has attended 1,497 and claimed that it has attended 91.17 percentage of complaints which means BMC is complying the high court order of filling up the potholes as soon as the complaints are received.

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagala had asked the state government to file chart wise compliance report of all other district of Maharashtra and had kept the hearing after two weeks.

The Bombay high court was hearing a suo-moto PIL pertaining to potholes. While passing comprehensive order in the month of April 2018, the court had said that the Maharashtra government’s endeavour to make every city “smart” was commendable but it would only be possible when the city’s roads, streets and footpaths were in a good condition and free of potholes.

The court further said it was the legal and constitutional obligation of the state government and all other local authorities to ensure good roads.

The bench directed the state government to come up with a policy on the terms and conditions in relation to road contracts so as to ensure quality and durability of the work carried out.

“We also direct the state government to set up a centralised grievance redressal mechanism, wherein citizens can lodge their complaints. A person travelling from one city to another would not know under which authority a particular road falls,” the court said.

Once the government receives a complaint, it can then forward it to the local authority concerned for follow-up action and compliance, the court said.