Potholes issue: HC ropes in top army engineer as court commissioner to inspect and submit status report

BENGALURU: In an interesting development in the potholes issue, the Karnataka high court on Monday appointed two court commissioners, including a top army engineer, in the state.

Dinesh Agrawal - superintending engineer, CWE (Army), Bengaluru, Military Engineer Services, and M G Uma, the member secretary, Karnataka State Legal Services Authority - have been appointed court commissioners.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari requested them to visit certain areas in north and West Bengaluru wherein the BBMP claimed to have completed 100 per cent filling of potholes and submit a preliminary report to the court on Tuesday.

Based on the said request, the two court commissioners along with V Sreenidhi, counsel for the BBMP, SR Anuradha, counsel for the petitioners, and BBMP engineers/officers visited the areas on Monday evening.

The team visited several wards in Yelahanka zone, Malleswaram and Mahalakshmi layout areas coming under West Zone of the BBMP.

Though the court permitted two IISc scientists whose services the BBM had availed for execution of the work to visit the areas along with the team, they expressed their inability citing paucity of time.

90 per cent task accomplished

Earlier, when the hearing commenced, V Sreenidhi, the BBMP counsel, informed the court that so far 90 per cent task of filling potholes has been accomplished and the work is continuing because several new/other potholes were discovered.

He also submitted photographs and status report on the work already competed.

On instructions from his officers/engineers, Sreenidhi told the court that in seven wards out of 44 wards in Malleshwaram (West Zone), seven wards in Mahalakshmi Layout (West Zone) and four wards out of 11 wards in Yelahanka zone the task of filling up of potholes is 100 per cent completed.