‘All roads to be potholefree by Oct 31’

BMC tells HC it will not only complete repairs soon, but also rope in experts to be better prepared for next year

must keep its word on the self-imposed October 31 deadline for it will not be granted any extension or leniency henceforth.“the stakeholders must ensure that the roads are repaired and that all the previous orders of the court on the issue are complied with. We will not allow the BMC or the state to makeageneralstatementorto seek more time now,” the bench said.

The bench also reminded the corporation of Sakhre’s jibe at the last hearing. While reacting to another bench’s observation that driving on pothole-ridden roads leads to backache, Sakhre had said the roads were maintained well and the judge might have developed a backache due to poor suspension in his car.

REACTIONS

“The concept of setting deadlines should be looked at carefully. In a city like Mumbai, where potholes appear even after they have been filled, the repair process should be continuous. The material used for filling potholes currently is of poor quality. Roads in Andheri have been repaired around 10 times now. The civic body is just fooling citizens and the HC by setting deadlines,” said James John, an activist with AGNI.

“Since Mumbai has been facing the problem of potholes for years now, it is time a senior official is held accountable. Unless, we set an example, the problem will just persist. The day accountability is fixed on one individual, the system will see much better results,” said Milind Mhaske, a project co-ordinator with Praja Foundation.

Corporators too had a lot to say on the latest development. Pravin Chheda, a Congress corporator, said, “By saying such things in front of the court, they (BMC) are doing nothing but fooling them. These are false promises. Before this also, the civic body had set 5-7 deadlines. What happened to those?”

Sandeep Deshpande, MNS corporator said, “They (BMC) should learn to respect the HC if not the citizens and corporators. If this is not done, we will bring the commissioner to Mumbai streets and make him hold a sign board that he is responsible for the city’s pothole mess.”