Plight of Mumbai roads: Cong holds 'pothole photo exhibition' to shame ruling BJP

Mumbai: Mocking the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the Mumbai civic body and showcasing the plight of city roads riddled with potholes, the Congress on Tuesday held a 'potholes photo exhibition' near the BMC office here.

Inaugurating the day-long exhibition displaying about 402 photos of potholes surfacing on in the wards represented by Sena, BJP and MNS corporators, Congress MLA Nitesh Rane criticised the BMC's ruling coalition for jeopardising the lives of city dwellers "through their corrupt practises".

"These two coalition parties are ruling BMC for last many years and have put lives of people in the city in danger through their corrupt practices. And these potholes (on roads) are an example of their misdeeds," Rane said.

According to Rane, the pictures were shot on the day when Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Ajoy Mehta took a stock of road conditions and had said that there were only 62 potholes in the city.

The exhibit pictures carry details like location, name of ward and constituency.

"I don't say that there are no potholes in the wards represented by Congress corporators. But if there are any, then let the ruling party corporators show them," he said.

Former MP Nilesh Rane, who was also present on the occasion, alleged that the civic corporation was currently in a mess due to "corruption in awarding raod contracts by BMC officials".

"BMC's annual budget runs up over Rs 40,000 crore. The Sena-BJP leaders have failed to run the city. Now that (BMC) elections are approaching, it is high time that people should know the realities and these potholes are a tip of the iceberg of the corruption done by them," Rane further alleged.

He said they had written to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, Mumbai's Guardian Minister Subhash Desai, corporators and other civic body officials to attend the exhibition, but no one turned up.