Bengaluru: Cutting across party lines, the city corporators took officials from the major road and health divisions to task for not providing adequate facilities to citizens.
Slamming the BBMP engineering division’s decision to float tenders for pothole filling at Rs 15.72 crore, JD(S) leader in the BBMP council, R. Prakash questioned as to why the newly asphalted roads had to be repaired.
He was joined by opposition leader in the BBMP council Manjunath Reddy, who said, “Some of the roads were asphalted eight months ago. Why can’t the BBMP get the contractor, who laid the roads, to maintain them for three years as per the contract?”
BBMP Chief Engineer (Major Roads) Somashekar said that they identified 1.81 lakh square metres of roads that needed patch work. Of this, 67 per cent of work has been completed and the remaining is under progress. These roads were asphalted around five years ago and not recently, he said.
Former Mayor K. Chandrashekar pointed out that BBMP Commissioner M. Lakshminarayan had said the BBMP would not spend a single paisa from its pockets and contractors would be made to maintain the roads. “Mr Lakshminarayan had also said the pothole free drive would be taken up during November, but none of the officials are following his directions,” he said.
Banashankari Temple ward corporator A.H. Basavaraj questioned why the BBMP health wing has failed to procure adequate vaccinations and drugs. He and Mr. Chandrashekar came down heavily against Joint Commissioner (Health) Yatish and demanded the council to transfer him out of the BBMP. Mayor N. Shanthakumari took him to task for not serving the poor patients who approach BBMP hospitals.
