BMC apathy to blame for uncovered, broken drains
48-year-old Bhagwan Kamble, a resident of Carter Road, Bandra, has for the past two years woken up early with a task, that of taking pictures of broken and uncovered manholes in his area and reporting it to his ward office for immediate redressal. But, he claims that his efforts are futile since whenever he reports to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), no action is taken on his complaints.
Kamble said, “So far I have e-mailed hundreds of such uncovered and broken manholes and nullahs lid pictures to the civic officers but no cognizance has been taken. Many nullahs and manholes of Bandra west and Khar area are in poor state.” He added, “It’s sad that due to BMC negligence the tax payers have to suffer. Last year a young man broke his leg at Carter Road when he found himself under the broken lid of manhole which eventually landed him in hospital. The young man was supposed to join his new job, and now the recent incident of famous gastroenterologist Dr. Deepak Amarapurkar lost his life during the August 29 deluge because he fell into an open manhole. Yet, BMC is not learning anything from its mistakes.”
Meanwhile, a Free Press Journal reporter also did a survey and found lids in these area in a shoddy state. Many nullahs covers were either broken and in dangerous condition and if anybody steps on it they would definitely fall into the drain and sustain serious injures.
During the check, it was discovered that a manhole lid on BJ road near Bollywood star Salman Khan’s building which appears to be 14-feet deep was broken. And, to avoid any mishap the locals covered the broken part with a paver block for pedestrians and motorist. We also visited the streets of KC Marg, 15 Road in Khar west, Ambedkar Marg - St. Elias High School street of Khar, Union Park Rroad, Rizvi College road, St. Martin Tunnel Road near Bandra BMC Ward office and found many nullahs on roads and footpaths in dangerous condition.
Vijay Hingorani, who a had claimed last year that he could not take up a lucrative job offer after falling into a manhole and breaking his leg at Carter Road Bandra and had even sued BMC for Rs. 1.5 crore is still struggling to get a reply from civic body. His advocate Laxman Kannad said, “We have sent notices twice to the BMC for detailed reply. We have also informed them that my client would move court against them but not received any reply.” He claimed that as their was no reply from BMC even his client had later on dropped his fight and realised that legal proceedings against BMC would be a futile exercise as he was already under financial burden.
Though media widely reported the Hingorani incident yet the Bandra ward officer was clueless regarding it. Executive Engineer of Bandra West, Vaquar Javed stated that he has no knowledge of any such incident. He was also unware of any notice having been sent by Hingorani’s lawyer. Interestingly, when FPJ showed him some of the pictures of the broken nullah and manhole lids in his ward, Javed was stunned and asked for them so that his officers could replace them.
A manhole lid near Bollywood star Salman Khan’s building was broken and locals have covered it with a paver block