As Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) enters the fifth day of its promise to attend to every pothole complaint within 24 hours, its engineers are having to pay Rs 42,500 for not being able to deliver the same.
Since the time the pothole challenge was launched by Mumbai’s civic body, 879 complaints have been received on their website. While most of them were fixed within the deadline as promised, 85 remained unattended. Now, the engineers will have to pay Rs 500 per pothole not fixed within 24 hours, as per the challenge.
On November 4 alone, 118 complaints were received. But, the civic executive engineers are struggling to fix the same within the stipulated time, reported The Times of India.
The competition was launched on November 1 via the civic body’s official Twitter handle @mybmc. It read:We accept the #PotholeChallenge2019 & we nominate YOU to help us win! Click a picture/selfie with a pothole, report on #FixItApp & we promise to fix it within 24 hrs. If not, you pocket Rs. 500! Report via https://t.co/eH6CsOifYF
Or visit: https://t.co/UQ4DbfpbHZ pic.twitter.com/lQPSkvFn6M
— माझी Mumbai, आपली BMC (@mybmc) November 1, 2019
However, there’s a catch. The money will be given to the respective plaintiffs only if it does not violate BMC’s rule for the competition. For instance, the potholes reported must be at least three inches deep or one-foot-long. Moreover, each person can report only two potholes, and the first person reporting a particular pothole will receive Rs 500 if the BMC engineers fail to get it fixed within 24 hours of the complaint.
Admitting that this challenge, which will close on November 7, has resulted in increased accountability, a BMC official said: “We are noticing a change on the ground with civic engineers working promptly.”
However, Sukhdev Kashid, who belongs to the municipal engineers’ association, feels it is wrong to ask the engineers to pay the money. He said, the contractors appointed by BMC often lack the required infrastructure, in which case it is unfair for only the engineers to bear the burden.
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