Educate citizens on how to claim damages by Oct 11, HC raps BBMP

Source: newindianexpress.com

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday granted time till October 11 to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to submit a compliance report on directions issued to give wide publicity about rights in claiming compensation from the civic body in case of damages due to poor condition of roads in the city.

The division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice SR Krishna Kumar granted time to the BBMP after hearing a PIL petition filed by Vijayan Menon and others.

The court said that counsel of the BBMP tendered the compliance report. As far as directions issued on July 31, 2019, the counsel has not placed a single report submitted by ward committees about the condition of roads in their respective wards. The BBMP has publicised the manner in which its grievance redressal mechanism functions, but not the compensation a citizen can claim in case of injury or damage due to poor condition of roads, it said. 

Meanwhile, counsel of the BBMP submitted that a small advertisement was given in two major English and Kannada dailies about the grievance redressal mechanism to save money.

The court said that the desire of the BBMP is appreciated. However, “we find that even according to the BBMP, certain stretches (can extract data from earlier order) of roads are riddled with potholes. The object behind issue of directions is that the BBMP has to discharge its duties immediately. Moreover, wide publicity is required to enable citizens to file complaints. We direct the BBMP to file a compliance report placing on record details of complaints received and action taken on them by October 11, 2019”, the court said, while adjourning the hearing to October 14, 2019.

Earlier, counsel of the petitioner pointed out that the BBMP has not complied directions about reports to be submitted by ward committees.

‘POTHOLES ARE LIKE CANCER’

Meanwhile, BBMP counsel K N Puttegowda submitted that potholes are like cancer. The city roads were built for 15 lakh people but the population has crossed 1.30 crores. This has caused a massive increase in number of vehicles. Work done yesterday to fill potholes is washed away in rain today. Hereafter, “we will get reports from ward committees every month”, he submitted.