BMP says only 7 potholes on Bangalore's roads

Only 7 potholes on Bangalore’s roads!
BCC Levies Token Fine Of Rs 1,000 On 7 Engineers
Times of India

It’s a miracle. There are just seven potholes on Bangalore’s roads! Or so the Bangalore city corporation thinks, for it has fined only seven area engineers for unfilled potholes.

And the whopping fine? Rs 1,000 each. (Is it per pothole?)

Bangalore Mayor P.R. Ramesh initially floated the ‘fine’ idea to fix the city’s potholes. But even as the engineers got fined, he has come to their rescue: “Potholes keep erupting in rains. We cannot cover the entire city with umbrellas!’’
Making the ‘fine’ idea even more ludicrous, Ramesh also gave the engineers a huge loophole: he said he had asked the chief engineers to identify such roads which are really neglected by the engineers and not those damaged by heavy rain or heavy vehicular movement. Which means only inefficiency would cause potholes in their pockets..!

Here is the ‘hole’ story: you must have been alarmed at having spotted some gentlemen bending double to look closely at the roads on Saturday. You needn’t have. For, they were the Bangalore city corporation’s chief engineers who set out in the evening armed with paper cuttings of pothole pictures. They were busy counting potholes.
Naturally, they went to very few roads and found seven stretches dotted with potholes. Remember mayor Ramesh had announced that engineers will be fined Rs 1,000 for every pothole photograph published in the newspapers?

So, for, the area engineers, it was a photo-finish! And definitely not a fine evening: seven were fined.
But, the others needn’t feel happy about it. BCC’s engineer-in-chief Rame Gowda told The Times of India that initially a ‘general’ fine of Rs 1,000 each will levied on each engineer. “We have not fined them as per the pothole count. This is to send across the message that the engineers should take the deadlines and warnings seriously. This pothole inspection will continue and fines will be more severe in future,’’ he stated. The following are the potholed stretches found by the BCC team:

l Ward 15, Rajajinagar: Dr Rajkumar Road near Navarang theatre. Junior engineer Mohan Das and AEE A.M. Nayak. l Ward 27 Gandhinagar: near Sampige theatre: Junior engineer K. Manjunath and AEE Edeyavendan. l Ward 60 Pattabhiramanagar: Byrasandra 10th cross; Jayanagar 9th cross. Assistant engineer Nagaraj. l Ward 56 Ganesha Mandir: Attimabbe road; Ganesha Mandir road. Assistant engineer Manche Gowda and AEE Rangaswamy.