MNS warns civic body officials to repair potholes by Diwali failing which they won’t be allowed to celebrate the festival.
With an eye on the 2017 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has raked up the pothole issue to remain in limelight. MNS which had earlier held protests in various parts of the city to highlight the pothole issue has this time warned civic body officials to repair the roads by Diwali failing which they won’t be allowed to celebrate the festival. Earlier Raj Thackeray, MNS president had urged people to file cases against errant engineers for the substandard work performed by them. He also had wanted the civic body officials to take responsibility for rising potholes in the metropolis.
“A team of our leaders met Additional Municipal Commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh and apprised him of the perils of rising number of potholes on city roads. The officer assured us that the potholes would be filled by Diwali, to which we agreed. Our leaders have issued an ultimatum to the senior BMC officer and civic engineers that if potholes are not filled as assured, they will not let them celebrate Diwali,” said MNS General Secretary Shalini Thackeray.
“Our party is following a zero tolerance policy towards potholes. Potholes are a reflection of corrupt practise of road engineers, contractors with connivance of senior civic officials. Therefore, we are committed to put an end to this menace,” she said.
Even though the BMC spends more than Rs 2,000 crores for road concretisation work but citizens have to grapple with rising potholes in the city.
A group of MNS workers led by leader Sandeep Deshpande and corporator Santosh Dhuri had last week allegedly forced Chief Engineer (Roads), BMC, Sanjay Darade to hold an embarrassing placard at a spot in Dadar which read that the officer is “responsible for potholes in the city”.
Later, Darade filed a complaint against the two and subsequently both were arrested by the Shivaji park police under IPC Sections 341 (wrongful restraint) and 506 (34) (criminal intimidation). The two leaders are currently behind bars.
Meanwhile, MNS has claimed that ever since it has launched drive on the issue, civic administration has “woken up” and are discharging their duties “rightfully”.
On the other hand, Trushna Vishwasrao, Leader of House and Sena corporator, said the party has already instructed civic body officials to speed up pothole repair work. She said “We have already given the civic chief a deadline to fix potholes within three to four days in the last standing committee meeting, and thus the pothole filling work is on track. It has nothing to do with the MNS.”
