Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court has given the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) time till Dasara to fix all the potholes in the street in the city. A hearing led by Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) will be heard again on October 23. It also directed the BBMP to have a dedicated system for citizens to highlight road related issues such as maintenance.

Previously, the BBMP had suffered under the hands of the High Court since September 20 when they were asked to fill up the potholes within the time span of one day. The HC was unhappy with the BBMP’s response. They set up a two-member commission comprising Dinesh Agarwal, Commander Works Engineering of the Military Engineering Services (MES) and Uma M G, Member Secretary of the Karnataka Legal Services Authority, to find out the cause of this.

The commission reported that the BBMP had downplayed the situation regarding the potholes by at least 20-25. The other irregularities in this report were regarding the materials used in the repair work of these potholes.

On September 25, the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) also testified in the case stating that there were a large number of potholes in areas where they had previously dug for pipelines.

The whole issue was first started when Vijay Menon of Citizens Action Forum filed a PIL, seeking the High Court’s intervention in solving the city’s pothole problem, among various other issues.