Bengaluru June 16 (IANS) In a novel initiative Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara asked people to report about potholes in Bengaluru via Whatsapp message call or e-complain on the civic body s website to get them repaired at the earliest.
"Report a pothole get it fixed immediately " tweeted Parameshwara who is in-charge of Bengaluru Development as additional post along with Home and Youth Empowerment and Sports.
The Minister has also told netizens to register a complaint on potholes on the civic body s online redressal forum Sahaaya (help) with the web address bbmp.sahaaya.in
Notorious for traffic snarls the city s pot-holed roads made national news when they claimed the lives of some denizens after heavy downpour last year.
G. Veena 21 riding on a scooter was crushed to death by a truck in October last year in the city when she was trying to avoid a pothole and fell from the scooter.
A 55-year-old man Anthony Joseph and his wife Sagai Mary were also killed in the same manner as they tried to negotiate a gaping pothole and were hit by a bus.
As many as four people were killed due to the potholes in a span of 10 days in October after heavy monsoons left the city s roads damaged.
The city s civic body commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao said the work on repairing potholes being created by the monsoons in the city was on.
"We are currently working to fill about 50-70 per cent of the potholes left by the rains. Citizens complaints will help in attending to the potholes in an easier way " Rao told IANS here.A
Srinivas Alavilli a volunteer coordinator for people s forum Citizens for Bengaluru said the digital initiative to register complaints makes it easier to denizens to report about potholes to the authorities.
"The effort will be well-worth if the authorities publish data on the complaints results of the repair work and the expenditure on fixing the potholes " Alavilli said.
The real solution to potholes lies in empowering ward committees of each of the city s administrative division and allowing road works to be monitored by local residents he added.
In October last year former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had set a 15-day deadline to the civic body authorities to fill about 15 000 potholes in the city.
The deadline was however missed and many potholes were left unattended.

--IANS bha/mr