Potholes are a major problem in Bengaluru, a city notorious for its traffic snarls. (File)
In a novel initiative, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara has asked citizens to report about potholes in Bengaluru via Whatsapp message, call or e-complaint on the civic body's website.
"Report a pothole, get it fixed immediately," tweeted Mr Parameshwara, who is in-charge of Bengaluru Development as additional post along with Home, Youth Empowerment and Sports.
The Minister has also asked citizens to register complaints about potholes on the civic body's online redressal forum Sahaaya (help) with the web address, bbmp.sahaaya.in
Notorious for traffic snarls,
Bengaluru's pot-holed roads made national news when they claimed lives after heavy downpour last year.
G. Veena, 21, was crushed to death by a truck in October last year while trying to avoid a pothole. A 55-year-old man, Anthony Joseph and his wife were also killed in a similar manner as they tried to negotiate a gaping pothole and were hit by a bus.
As many as four people were killed in accidents caused by potholes in a span of 10 days in October, after heavy rains left the city's roads damaged.
The city's civic body commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao said potholes created by rains were being repaired.
"We are currently working to fill about 50-70 per cent of the potholes left by the rains. Citizens' complaints will help in attending to the problem in an easy way," Mr Rao told IANS.
Srinivas Alavilli, a volunteer coordinator for people's forum 'Citizens for Bengaluru' said the digital initiative to register complaints makes it easier to report potholes to the authorities.
"The effort will be worth if the authorities publish data on the complaints, results of the repair work and the expenditure on fixing the potholes," Mr Alavilli said.
The real solution to potholes lies in empowering ward committees of each of the city's administrative division and allowing road works to be monitored by local residents, he added.
In October last year, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had set a 15-day deadline to the civic body authorities to fill about 15,000 potholes in the city.
The deadline was, however, missed and many potholes were left unattended.
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