State government and civic authorities have a constitutional obligation to build and maintain good roads, the Bombay High Court said on Friday..A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor stated that the cause of deaths of pedestrians from falling in manholes or potholes is man-made and not a natural cause.“The deaths of pedestrians or cyclists falling in manholes or potholes is a man-made cause, it is not a natural cause. You not only have a constitutional duty under Article 21 but also a statutory obligation to supervise and monitor. All exercise need not be done by court. Why should we waste our time? It is your job and responsibility," the Court said. .The remarks came while hearing a petition seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings for violation of an earlier order of the High Court directing all the municipal corporations and the State government to maintain streets and roads, including footpaths, in good and proper condition. .Miffed at the inaction of the civic authorities, the Court had, on August 9, summoned the municipal commissioners of six corporations across the Mumbai metropolitan region.Pursuant to that, all the commissioners were present in Court on Friday..The commissioner for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) stated that due to unusually heavy rains this year potholes surfaced at many places within a span of five weeks.The commissioner gave statistics about the stretch of roads and potholes covered this year. "You (BMC) might have done concretisation of certain kilometres of roads till now, but that does not mean roads are not in good condition. Every day there are newspaper reports about bad roads and the net result is the same. I have been a student of statistics and there are three types of lies in statistics. Lies, damned lies and statistical lies. These statistics are not to be confused with the amount of work that needs to be done. If you see your own data, the rainfall has not increased much this year. The main cause is negligence and what is done with government funds," CJ Upadhyaya orally remarked..The bench directed the commissioner to conduct a spot survey of the roads in his jurisdiction in the presence of a commission consisting of two advocates. It called for exhaustive compliance reports of all corporations by September 29 when the matter will be heard next.
State government and civic authorities have a constitutional obligation to build and maintain good roads, the Bombay High Court said on Friday..A division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor stated that the cause of deaths of pedestrians from falling in manholes or potholes is man-made and not a natural cause.“The deaths of pedestrians or cyclists falling in manholes or potholes is a man-made cause, it is not a natural cause. You not only have a constitutional duty under Article 21 but also a statutory obligation to supervise and monitor. All exercise need not be done by court. Why should we waste our time? It is your job and responsibility," the Court said. .The remarks came while hearing a petition seeking initiation of contempt of court proceedings for violation of an earlier order of the High Court directing all the municipal corporations and the State government to maintain streets and roads, including footpaths, in good and proper condition. .Miffed at the inaction of the civic authorities, the Court had, on August 9, summoned the municipal commissioners of six corporations across the Mumbai metropolitan region.Pursuant to that, all the commissioners were present in Court on Friday..The commissioner for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) stated that due to unusually heavy rains this year potholes surfaced at many places within a span of five weeks.The commissioner gave statistics about the stretch of roads and potholes covered this year. "You (BMC) might have done concretisation of certain kilometres of roads till now, but that does not mean roads are not in good condition. Every day there are newspaper reports about bad roads and the net result is the same. I have been a student of statistics and there are three types of lies in statistics. Lies, damned lies and statistical lies. These statistics are not to be confused with the amount of work that needs to be done. If you see your own data, the rainfall has not increased much this year. The main cause is negligence and what is done with government funds," CJ Upadhyaya orally remarked..The bench directed the commissioner to conduct a spot survey of the roads in his jurisdiction in the presence of a commission consisting of two advocates. It called for exhaustive compliance reports of all corporations by September 29 when the matter will be heard next.
