Why contractors shouldn’t be booked for bad roads, asks HC
Mumbai: Taking suo-motu notice of poor condition of Mumbai roads due to heavy rains, the Bombay High Court today asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to explain why no action should be taken against erring contractors.
The court’s query came in response to BMC’s statement that it has spent Rs 250 crores on road repairs last month in anticipation of monsoon.
Referring to this statement and yesterday’s images of potholes filled roads shown by news channels, Justice Lodha wondered “whether all this money was going down the drain.”
The court directed the BMC to file an affidavit stating as to what action it was contemplating against the contractors or the BMC officials responsible for roads within three weeks.
The court observations on yesterday’s rains came during the hearing of a PIL filed after floods on July 26 last year, which sought implementation of Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drains Project conceived in 1993, which proposes overhaul of drainage system in the city for tackling the floods.
The division bench of Justice R M Lodha and Justice S F Vajifdar also directed the BMC to have a time-frame for implementation of this project and details of the phases in which it was going to be done.
During the hearing of the PIL, the court also commented on city’s paralysed condition due to the rains in the last two days.
Dismissing BMC lawyer’s contention that it was due to extremely heavy rains, Justice Lodha observed that “heavy rains were not a new thing in a coastal city like Mumbai.”
URL- http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/484200607052175.htm