Like every year the streets of India’s economic capital, Mumbai, become potential death traps for the residents of the city courtesy pothole-riddled roads which have claimed innocent lives in the past. If reports are to be believed Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has spent over Rs 17,000 on every pothole that it repaired in the city and suburbs.
The numbers were revealed through an RTI. The reply reveals that it spent over Rs 15 crore to repair 8,879 potholes in this period. But while this seems exorbitant, from 2013 to 2015, it spent over Rs 80 crore on repairing 3,654 potholes. In all, the BMC has spent over Rs 116 crore in the past six years on repairing potholes.
The RTI was filed by activist Shakil Shaikh. He told the leading daily, “There is a lot of corruption happening in filling up potholes. How can filling one pothole cost over Rs 17,000? It is beyond logic.”
In its reply to the RTI query, between April 1, 2015, and March 31, 2016, the percentage of complaints attended by BMC stood at 99.37 per cent whereas the percentage of complaints pending stood at 0.63 per cent. From April 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017, the percentage of complaints attended by BMC stood at 93.18 per cent while 6.82 per cent complaints were pending.
Between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018, 98.42 per cent complaints were addressed by the BMC against 1.58%. From April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019, the percentage of complaints attended by BMC was 99.76%. Giving details about the current year, the BMC, in its RTI reply, claimed to have attended 92.52% complaints with 7.48% pending,
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