In a surprising move, officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have put up banners, asking Mumbai residents to direct any complaints regarding potholes to the road contractors.Such banners popped up along several roads at Mumbais Bandra and Khar in BMCs H-West ward, such as Linking Road, Ambedkar Road, 30th Road, and 5th Road.The banners informed the public that any road-related complaints such as bad patches, potholes, and others, should be directed to the contractor in charge, Nagarjuna Construction Company Limited. The banners also listed the numbers of contractors for the public to contact to register complaints.Nagarjuna Construction is one of the five contractors hired by the BMC as part of a ₹6,000 crore road concretisation project.BMC move illegal, immoral: BJP MLAThe banners, however, have attracted a fair amount of criticism from opposition parties, who accused the BMC of absolving its duties as the maintainer of public roads and putting the onus on the general public to go knocking on the contractors doors to get their issues solved.Bandra BJP MLA Ashish Shelar, who termed the move illegal and immoral, said, “The contractor has been appointed by BMC and the citizen cannot be expected to go and knock the doors of a private contractor with a complaint.” He said that the BMC should be responsible for any shortcomings in road maintenance, and fine the contractors if necessary.The move was also criticised by former Bandra councillor Asif Zakaria, who said, “The BMC bringing in big infrastructure companies to construct Mumbai roads has not changed anything on ground as these big companies have also been incapable of maintaining these roads. Eventually, citizens are suffering.”Big ticket contracts,big tenders floated with fanfare,major infra project companies given red carpet =same every year story potholes&bad roads.Net result poor taxpaying #Mumbaikar continues to suffer another experiment of @mybmc @mybmcRoads @richapintoi @mybmcWardHW @INCMumbai https://t.co/OKhBlk3xdB— Asif Zakaria (@Asif_Zakaria) July 15, 2023However, the Municipal Corporation has defended the move, saying that the authorities are simply trying to give the residents another channel to register their grievances. They assured that complaints directed to the BMC would also be heard and forwarded to the relevant contractors.The complaint mechanism was praised by Swapna Mhatre, who is a former BJP corporator from Khar. “This year, the complaint mechanism has been much [more] effective than the past where officers have been prompt in dealing with pothole-related complaints,” she said.
