It seems the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has finally woken up to address the issue of lax officials.
In a laudable move, Bengaluru Mayor Sampath Raj took a ride around the city in his two-wheeler on Wednesday to check on the ongoing pothole filling works. When he reached BBMP West Zone and found that potholes in the area were not filled, he suspended an assistant engineer.
This is the fourth engineer that the Mayor has suspended for shoddy pothole filling work. The suspended engineer is Bijjala Raju.
Speaking to TNM, the Mayor said that he was shocked to see pothole-ridden stretches near Majestic Bus Stand, which is a main road.
“During inspection, I found that roads near Majestic and Anand Rao Circle are full of potholes. The Chief Minister had warned the engineers and concerned officials that the he would pay a surprise visit to inspect the city roads. Despite this, work was not completed properly. I saw many potholes yesterday (Wednesday),” the Mayor said.
He said that the assistant engineer was suspended for carelessness and that suspensions would continue till the city had no potholes left. He also said that CM Siddaramaiah would conduct a surprise inspection.
On Tuesday, BBMP suspended three road engineers for not fixing the potholes in their jurisdiction.
Amruth Kumar Solanki, working engineer at C V Raman Nagar zone, Saifudeen, assistant engineer at Shivajinagar sub-division, and Mallinatha Malkapura, assistant engineer at Banaswadi ward, were suspended for negligence in carrying out the road works in their respective areas.
The BBMP has invoked Section 10 of the Karnataka Civil Services (CCA) Rules, 1957 in suspending all four engineers. The suspended engineers are not permitted to leave the headquarters during the suspension period but are eligible for sustenance allowance as per the rules.
“Their work was not up to satisfaction. The wet mix will not last long, but we had to do it as a quick fix solution,” BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad said, admitting that new potholes have been identified. Prasad said the civic body is planning to develop a 'Pothole Reporter' app which will allow citizens to report potholes.
“The complaints from citizens made through the app would be resolved in 48 hours,” Prasad added.