Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday gave the civic body of Bengaluru a fortnight to fill up and fix 15,000 potholes across the city. The order comes after four people died in accidents caused by bad roads over the past two weeks.
On Tuesday, a woman died after she was flung off a scooter and crushed by a truck near Devanahalli, NDTV reported. G Veena, 21, was riding pillion with her older sister, who had to swerve the scooter to avoid a pothole. As they slowed down, a truck hit them from behind. Both women fell off the scooter, and the truck ran over Veena, killing her. Her sister, 24-year-old Lakshmi, is in hospital.
On Sunday, a 47-year-old woman, Radha Ajanappa, was killed the same way on the Mysuru Road. On October 2, Anthony Joseph, 55, and his wife Sagai Mary, 53, were killed on the Mysuru flyover when a bus knocked down their two-wheeler. Joseph was also trying to avoid a pothole, according to The Times of India.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the civic body responsible for the city’s roads, has been criticised after rain and frequent flooding have battered Bengaluru’s roads. The municipality claims there are 15,000 potholes on the city’s 14,000-km road network that they can fix only once the rain stops, according to the NDTV report.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, however, said that was not an option. “I have asked the commissioner of the corporation to fill up the potholes in 15 days, or else we will take action against those responsible,” the report quoted Siddaramaiah as saying.
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