[Mumbai potholes] Road outside my residence is also bad: Chief Justice Dipankar Datta

Chief Justice Dipankar Datta of Bombay High Court on Thursday said the road conditions in Mumbai has taken a turn for worse in the last two years..The judge recalled that in his early days as as CJ of the Bombay High Court, he had not entertained a public interest litigation concerning potholes in Mumbai since he had found that finding the roads in the commercial capital were in a better state than in his hometown Kolkata. However, he said that over the period of two years, he found that the situation has changed.“I do not go around the city of Mumbai as much as the others. I have a fixed route from my house to the court. But even on that route, Narayan Dabholkar Road in Malabar Hills, the condition is bad. See the condition of the road right outside the CJ’s residence. I am understanding the feeling of every other citizen. Now I cannot tell the Commissioner to fix that road, that would not be proper”, the CJ commented..The Chief Justice along with Justice Madhav Jamdar was hearing a petition claiming thar civic authorities of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region were in contempt of the order of the High Court passed in a 2013 public interest litigation pertaining to the issue of potholes.In 2018, the High Court had passed a detailed judgment after taking into consideration suggestions from lawyers and other intervenors.After a year, Mumbai lawyer and petitioner in person, Ruju Thakker approached the High Court alleging failure on the part of the civic authorities in implementing the High Court orders of February and April 2018..In the hearing today, Thakker pointed out that even after over 4 years of passing of the order, the authorities failed to take any steps towards compliance. The bad condition of the roads were causing accidents and even deaths of citizens, he alleged.Senior Advocate Anil Sakhare, appearing for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), pointed out that BMC had tended to 29,215 potholes between April to August 2022. He added that all necessary precautionary measures were being taken by the office which included spending ₹50 lakh for filling potholes and ₹1.5 crores for preventive maintenance.CJ Datta quipped that being one of the richest civic authority, it could very well utilise money for public good.“BMC is one of the richest corporations, having more funds than some governments. When you have money, use it for public good,” he said..The Bench asked the BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal to conduct a survey of the 20 worst roads in Mumbai Metropolitan region and inform the Court a roadmap on the timeline required to repair the same."We are not saying repair all the roads at one go. You might not be able to it. Do it in phase wise manner but do it with some responsibility," the Bench added..Before concluding the hearing, the Bench referred to an observation made in an order by the Kerala High Court."There is a Kerala High Court order which says ‘if there was a magic wand by which we could eradicate greed, all of this wouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, it is so engrained in the society, we have to live with it’”.