Must prevent accidents once potholes brought to notice: HC tells civic bodies

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The Bombay HC Thursday pulled up civic bodies, including the Thane Municipal Corporation, over non-repair and non-filling of potholes, saying that authorities must take measures to prevent road accidents once complaints pertaining to potholes are brought to their notice and ensure that people do not die in such mishaps.
Referring to a recent accident at Ghodbunder road in Thane where a man was crushed to death by a state transport bus after his bike hit a pothole and fell, the court questioned the Thane municipal corporation (TMC) saying that people were dying and the TMC had the responsibility of taking necessary action.
The court observed that such incidents were taking place every year, as soon as the first rains of the monsoon season lash the cities, and the civic bodies are not at all equipped to mitigate the situation.
The HC bench also sought to know from the state government if any nodal officer from the urban development department had been appointed to oversee compliances by 27 corporations pertaining to repairing of roads and filling up potholes.
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A division bench of Justice Anil K Menon and Justice Makarand S Karnik was hearing a contempt petition filed by advocate Ruju Thakker alleging that the civic authorities had failed to implement the high court orders of February and April 2018, suo motu (on its own) PIL, directing repairing of potholes along all arterial roads in the city and devising a uniform mechanism to redress citizens’ grievances related to bad roads and potholes.
Thakker’s contempt plea claimed that the state government and the civic bodies acted in contempt of HC’s order and in Mumbai, “most roads, including arterial roads, have developed potholes just like all the previous monsoon seasons.”
On Thursday, Thakker, appearing in person, referred to news reports pertaining to Tuesday morning’s incident at Ghodbunder Road in Thane leading to the death of a 37-year-old man, saying that despite the corporations claiming to have complied with HC orders, “there seems to be something amiss”. After Thakker said she was not served with the compliance reports, the court asked the civic bodies to serve copies of the same to her.
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