BMC staff will have to pay citizens ₹500 if potholes aren’t fixed in 24 hours

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday clarified that civic officials responsible for maintaining roads will have to shell out ₹500 from their pockets,

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday clarified that civic officials responsible for maintaining roads will have to shell out ₹500 from their pockets, if potholes reported by citizens in their jurisdiction are not repaired within 24 hours.

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The civic body on November 1 launched a seven-day campaign wherein citizens will get ₹500 if the potholes spotted and reported by them are not fixed in 24 hours. If the pothole is on a road under the jurisdiction of wards and the roads department, the ward official concerned will have to pay for the potholes, followed by the engineer concerned. If the pothole is on a road, which is under the defect liability period (DLP), the money will be taken from the contractor concerned.

The civic body’s clarification came after corporators demanded to know how it aims to pay citizens. Praveen Darade, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said there is no additional budget allocated for the campaign and the “officials concerned will have to shelve money from their own pockets”. “This is being done so the citizens get better roads as they deserve it,” said Darade.

Corporators at the standing committee meeting also claimed the BMC is trying to make citizens happy by offering them cash prize, instead of accepting its failure. Prabhakar Shinde, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator, also a member of the standing committee, asked why citizens need to be given money for reporting potholes. “I don’t know who thought of such a scheme. The BMC should answer why has this day come where BMC is offering a cash prize to citizens for reporting potholes...Can’t the engineers and BMC staff see potholes in the areas they are in charge of? This announcement is hilarious.” Ravi Raja, a Congress corporator, said, “One more time the BMC has come up with a non-workable idea. This is the fourth time the BMC has come up with some plan to address potholes problems, and it will also fail.”

Corporators also demanded that contractors who were issued show-cause notices over shoddy road works be blacklisted. The BMC’s vigilance department had in October issued a notice to around 41 contractors as the surface of the roads constructed by them was not in good condition, despite being in the defect liability period. This list of 41 contractors included several who were blacklisted three years ago, when the roads scam was unearthed.

Meanwhile, Sainath Rajadhakshya, president of BMC Engineers Union said, “Sometimes complaints are not attended to in 24 hours if staff and machinery is not available or material to fill potholes is not available. How can we charge the engineers or officials for that?”