The rains have exposed the sloppy monsoon preparedness works carried out by Pune Municipal Corporation across the city. As broken pavement blocks and pothole-ridden roads pose threat to pedestrians and vehicle-users, what strict actions should be taken against officials and contractors?
Penalise those responsible for bad roads
Firstly, all the extra budget of pavements should be diverted towards road repairs. We have seen pavement blocks changed frequently even if it is in good condition. Secondly, if there is a pothole on a particular road, the contractor and the person whose duty is to oversee the quality of work should be suspended immediately as it’s a kind of theft where taxpayers’ money is wasted on sub-standard and compromised quality of work thereby endangering the lives of citizens, especially two-wheelers. If anyone suffers serious injury due to bad roads, the people involved in making that stretch of the road should be booked for culpable homicide.
Sachin Khandelwal
Focus on quality of infrastructure
The current weather has clearly exposed the sloppy monsoon preparedness by the Pune Municipal Corporation. As an awakened citizen, I believe that this is blatant underuse of taxes that we common people pay. The issue raised here is not about whether or not PMC and their officials have prepared and carried out the work to build roads and pavements for citizens, my point is that the civic body and officials truly need to focus on the “quality of the infrastructure” that they are building. This brings us to a question — what action must be taken against such officers and contractors? I personally feel that simply cancelling the licence is not the apt action that can be taken. My suggestion would be to simply pass an order against such contractors and officers to get the work done under the “zero profit condition” or, on identifying such a case of poor quality of work, to simply ask the contractors to redo the work under conditions that only 1/3 of the cost shall be paid from the PMC treasury (the tax that the common people pay) and the rest shall be borne by the contractor and officer from their personal expense. It will result in their financial loss which is far greater than them being suspended for the action. I condemn politicising the issue as the duties of officers and contractors know no political party and each and every citizen must understand this.
{{/usCountry}}The current weather has clearly exposed the sloppy monsoon preparedness by the Pune Municipal Corporation. As an awakened citizen, I believe that this is blatant underuse of taxes that we common people pay. The issue raised here is not about whether or not PMC and their officials have prepared and carried out the work to build roads and pavements for citizens, my point is that the civic body and officials truly need to focus on the “quality of the infrastructure” that they are building. This brings us to a question — what action must be taken against such officers and contractors? I personally feel that simply cancelling the licence is not the apt action that can be taken. My suggestion would be to simply pass an order against such contractors and officers to get the work done under the “zero profit condition” or, on identifying such a case of poor quality of work, to simply ask the contractors to redo the work under conditions that only 1/3 of the cost shall be paid from the PMC treasury (the tax that the common people pay) and the rest shall be borne by the contractor and officer from their personal expense. It will result in their financial loss which is far greater than them being suspended for the action. I condemn politicising the issue as the duties of officers and contractors know no political party and each and every citizen must understand this.
{{/usCountry}}Krutarth K Kotnis
No development after coming under PMC
I am a plastic surgeon, a veteran of the Indian Armed forces. We have been living in Mohammadwadi and Undri areas since 2003. Prior to coming under PMC, we accepted that the local panchayats are guilty and responsible for poor roads. But conditions have only become worse since we have come into the municipal limits. Mushrooming unplanned housing societies have led to a tremendous increase in traffic. And road conditions worsen especially in the monsoons. My neighbour’s daughter met with a major accident on her scooter because of potholes in this area. The NIBM road from Clover Highlands to Palace Orchard is being continuously dug up by various agencies leading to extremely dangerous situation. Presently, pipeline work is on, decreasing the lane width and creating massive potholes on the remaining stretch. With Undri developing rapidly, the infrastructure is not progressing at that pace. Poor roads, no potable PMC water supply, irregular electricity supply make us wonder if we were not better off when we were still Undrigaon under a village panchayat and not PMC.
Col Dr Ravishanker (retd)
Law to claim compensation for bad road injury
Citizens should start claiming compensation from PMC for hardship and injuries caused due to poor civic works. Especially those who suffer sprains or injuries due to potholes, footpaths and bad roads. There has to be a law to claim compensation from the contractor. Name and contact number of contractor and work order number is still not displayed on each work site. Workorder should be available to citizens on PMC web site. It will be a worthy step towards Smart City.
Surendra Birje
Penalise official, blacklist contractor
Officials who are not doing their duty should be punished with salary cuts and stripped from job. The contractor concerned should be blacklisted and licence cancelled.
Chetan Wadkar
PMC ignores scientific road laying methods
Residents undergo trauma and hardship on roads for pothole, cracks, fissures that appear during monsoon season. Pothole-ridden roads often hidden beneath flooded areas, lead to accidents and fatalities. While the only section who benefits are road contractors as they get to do repeated repairs, maintenance or even lay new roads. It is evident that PMC engineers do not follow standard, norms and techniques framed for road laying in STAC (Standing Technical Advisory Committee) report.
STAC report was prepared by a technical committee comprising experts in the field of road engineering and construction in order to advise PMC on road-making strategy. It is a detailed and meticulous report, result of PIL filed before the high court’s order. PMC has no record of the road that must be laid. They only go by pressure tactics of elected representative. The state government is equally at fault for not understanding the seriousness of such an important issue, to issue a GR for mandatorily compliance so that tax paying citizens do not have to face deteriorating road condition.
Qaneez Sukhrani