After Govt's Warning, Bengaluru Civic Body Suspends 2 Engineers For Not Completing Pothole-Filling Targets

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner suspended two executive engineers for not fulfilling their monthly pothole-filling targets in their divisions.

Commissioner Gaurav Gupta has also issued notices to the two suspended officers, NS Revanna and CM Shivakumar, on Sunday, January 2.

Targets Not Achieved By Officers

Revanna has the Gandhinagar division under him; the officer met only 9 per cent of his total targets. The engineer filled only 67 out of the 782 potholes till December 28, 2021. Shivakumar is the in-charge executive engineer of the Yelahanka Zone and has achieved only 18 per cent of his total target. The bare minimum work led to their suspension.

Apart from Revanna and Shivakumar, notices have been sent to other executive engineers, including E Ramakrishnappa of Shivajinagar, H T Mohandas of Byatarayanapura, H S Mahadesh of Bommanahalli, and H V Rayappa Reddy of Dasarahalli, Hindustan Times reported.

Potholes To Be Filled By March 31

The action was taken after Chief Minister Basavraj Bommai held a review meeting on the repair works in the city and observed that potholes were not filled on the entire 730 km stretch of roads.

Looking at the figures, the minister gave BBMP a deadline of March 31 to complete the pothole filling exercise and re-laying the road stretches, which have been damaged due to several reasons. Action will be initiated against any employee who fails to complete the work.

An official aware of the meeting told HT that the pothole filling was one of the priority works for the state government. Nearly 150 engineers will be hired on a contractual basis for the work. The employees are being added, given the increase in the number of BBMP wards from 198 to 243.

Reportedly, the CM has also assured of granting additional ₹1,500 crores for the road projects under TenderSURE, a web-based tendering system.

Court's Order

In October, the Karnataka high court had pulled up the civic body for not filling up the potholes in the city. The court had directed the BBMP to complete the work at the earliest and submit a status report.

Dead End

As per the government's report, of the 85,791 roads in the over 198 wards in the city, 2653 (or 887 km) are in poor condition. Due to the dire state, several fatal accidents have occurred, and people have lost their lives.

The recent incident was reported in December when an engineer was arrested for the death of a 21-year-old man. The victim, Azeem Ahmed's scooter fell into a pothole, and he was run over by a truck allegedly being driven rashly. The police later arrested the truck driver as well.

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