The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BMP's `spot a pothole' contest likely to begin next week

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 13, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BMP's `spot a pothole' contest likely to begin next week

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's (BMP) innovative "spot a pothole" contest, wherein citizens can win Rs. 100 per pothole they spot on identified roads, is likely to start between January 16 and January 25.

The BMP, which has completed the groundwork for the contest, has earmarked a corpus fund of Rs. 1 lakh.

"The money has been deposited in a bank account, which has been specifically opened for this," officials of the palike have said.

The officials said the BMP Commissioner K. Jothiramalingam is likely to take a decision on starting the contest at a meeting of heads of departments to be held on Friday.

In the first phase, the civic body has identified over 100 km of roads in three zones in the city.

"The contest will be limited to these roads initially," the officials said.

According to the BMP Engineer-in-Chief Ramegowda, of the 93,032 identified potholes, 92,508 have been filled till Wednesday.

"We have identified the roads and the engineers in-charge of the roads. They will be accountable for the `shoddy' work because money for every pothole spotted by a citizen will be deducted from the salary of the zonal engineers concerned," Mr. Ramegowda said.

The scheme, which has been planned to sensitise the engineers and make them accountable for their work, has worried the engineers.

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