Pothole menace: CM Siddaramaiah inspects B’luru roads, gives 1-month deadline to repair
Bengaluru: Following the backlash over poor infrastructure of roads and pothole menace in Bengaluru, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah conducted inspection of the city roads and issued a one-month deadline to repair them and make the roads motorable.
He was speaking to the media on Saturday after conducting city rounds to inspect the condition of Bengaluru’s roads.
Instructions have been given to fill the potholes in the city roads, and this work must be of good quality. As the road repair work was not carried out properly, the concerned Executive Engineer has been suspended, CM Siddaramaiah stated.
Action has been taken because potholes were only loosely filled with jelly and left without proper tar surfacing. The white-topping work is underway on Hennur Road, and its maintenance is the responsibility of the respective contractor, the CM stated.
The government is spending Rs 13 crore per km for a 5 km stretch. A one-month time frame has been given to complete the road work, and instructions have been issued to ensure that no potholes remain, he stated.
Responding to the concern that potholes are being filled only because of the inspections, he acknowledged that potholes are indeed causing accidents.
However, he added that if road repairs had been carried out during the BJP government’s tenure, roads wouldn’t have deteriorated to this extent. Necessary steps will be taken to fix potholes before the end of the rainy season, he assured.
When asked about BJP MP Tejasvi Surya’s appeal asking people not to participate in the caste census survey, he responded that a petition was filed in court to stop the survey. The survey will be conducted in accordance with the court’s directives.
He added that around 10 lakh people have already completed the survey.
In response to a question about waste management issues, the Chief Minister noted that waste is being left unmanaged in several places along the roads. Instructions have been given to remove the waste immediately. If not done, action will be taken against the concerned commissioners and engineers, he warned.