Techie’s friends to petition, fight negligence of authorities

Bengaluru: Friends of the techie Om Prakash Tripathi, whose wife Stuti Tripathi Pandey, who died in the pot-hole accident on a flyover in Devarbisnahalli on Thursday, have collectively decided to petition against the civic authorities’ negligence for the pothole that caused the death of Stuti. ”We have collectively decided to support Om Prakash when he comes back to the city for taking legal action against the civic authority responsible for the pothole causing that fatal accident. We will ensure that with our petition, nobody in the future should meet an end like this on a road. ”Om Prakash’s close friend Sunil Kumar told Deccan Chronicle.

“While there is a hue and cry in the media about a negligence case filed against Om Prakash over his wife’s death by the Bangalore traffic police, the police have not intimated either us or Om Prakash about it. Stuti’s body was cremated in Satna on Sunday morning and we are unsure when Om Prakash will be returning back to the city,” said Sunil Kumar.

Meanwhile, the Old Airport traffic police have sent a notice to the BDA authorities on Sunday seeking details about the in-charge officer who is responsible for the maintenance of the road on the Devarbisinahalli flyover. “Once the BDA identifies the concerned official who is in-charge of the maintenance work of the road there and replies to our notice, police action will ensue,” said an investigating officer.

When asked about a cabinet minister’s comments on the traffic police who shouldn’t have booked negligence case on the husband in Stuti’s accident death case, Deputy Commissioner of Police Traffic East Division, Chandrashekar Baba told this newspaper that – “The police have to go by the law. As per the law, the case is IPC 304A, that we have booked. And in the course of investigations, whatever facts that emerge, whether the husband was being a negligent rider or if the accident would have caused due to authorities' negligence over maintaining pot holes on the flyover, whoever is responsible will face legal action, adding that the laws are not made by the police.

Not junior engineers, but Jt Commissioners to be hauled up

Instructions have been given to commissioner of BBMP to hold joint commissioners and chief engineers of all eight zones responsible for potholes and uncleared garbage in their respective zones. Hitherto, executive engineers and assistant engineers were held for the same. In cases where the officers belonged to BBMP, disciplinary action would be initiated. Engineers who are on deputation to BBMP but not interested in work would be asked to go back to their parent department, Bengaluru in charge minister R. Ramalinga Reddy stated. The commissioner has been given a free hand to take action against officers if they show laxity in their job, he added.

No auditing of potholes

Mr Reddy did not see any need for auditing the existing potholes in Bengaluru City and said it would be addressed at the earliest. “The real problem had been lack of coordination among various departments like BWSSB, BESCOM, BSNL and others who dug roads without informing BBMP. To overcome this, a coordination committee comprising heads of various departments headed by the BBMP commissioner had been constituted which would meet on first and third Monday of every month to take stock of the situation. Even permission for road cutting had been made online,” he added.

The State government will also extend financial assistance to the civic body to fix potholes before the rainy season. Karnataka Land Army Corporation will maintain roads constructed by it for three years. Tenders had been called for Rs 347 crore of the total Rs 1,000 crore promised by the government to fix potholes in city roads. Apart from this, Rs 1,500 crore had been promised under the Nagarotthana scheme to improve all roads including those in extension areas, Mr Reddy said.

Clean chit for contractors

Replying to a question, the minister said  contractors who do tardy jobs would be blacklisted and would not be given any works in future. More than 70-80% of  contractors were doing standard work and the rest of them were not up to the mark. As many as 20,000 km road come under BBMP but the  previous rulers in BBMP failed to improve main, arterial and sub-arterial roads. However, the incumbent government had accorded top  priority for improvement of roads within the city limits, he claimed.

Wrongly booked

Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) had been directed to complete the work on 23 km service road of the ring road fast and hand it over to BBMP. The potholes on that ring road would also be filled by BBMP without waiting for other agency to do it.