So now, the aam aadmi is supposed to click a picture of a pothole and send it to a mobile phone number accompanied by a google map of the area so that the Public Works Department can repair the pothole. This is leaning towards turning into a joke on the people of the State. There are potholes on every road – in cities, towns and villages – and the government wants the people to identify them so that the can be repaired? Does this mean that potholes that are not photographed and sent to the department will not be touched?
If the government can show a stretch of road that is over a couple of kilometres long that has no pothole, then it will be a reason to photograph it. This is not a competition to click a picture of a pothole and send to the government department with a google map. Can’t the government conduct its own survey and determine where the potholes exist and get them filled up?
Worse, the battering of the monsoon that has seen over 25 per cent of excess rain so far is being blamed for the condition of the roads. Even the former PWD Minister emerged to claim that the rains have caused the bad road conditions. Yes, it rained copiously, there is no denying that, the figures are there to prove just how much rain Goa received, but can the government look beyond nature for excuses when things go wrong? The government has to look at the quality of construction of the road – the material used and the proportions of use – before abjectly blaming the monsoon.
To make an analogy: the excess rains have played the devil with the roads, but the same rains fell on building terraces, the waters got accumulated there even for a brief while before flowing away, but the damage to these has not been as bad as to the roads, or else we would have had many buildings crumbling. So can the rains be solely responsible for the condition of the roads?
No, the rains alone cannot be blamed for the potholes, just as the potholes alone cannot be blamed for accidents. But, while the government does point to the rains for the craters on the roads, never does it admit that the same broken roads are also responsible for some, if not many, of the mishaps and even some deaths resulting from accidents due to these. In 2017 alone, across the country 3,597 persons lost their lives due to potholes. It led the Supreme Court, in December last year, to state that the authorites concerned should be held accountable for the road conditions and that the families of the victims be compensated by the State government.
The government cannot take the occurrence of potholes on the roads casually, by asking people to photograph them and then getting them repaired.This should be the responsibility of the government, and the Public Works Department, to ensure that the roads are smooth for traffic. The people pay taxes, including road tax for the life of the vehicle at the time of purchase. This is meant to be used for buildng roads and for their upkeep. This, the call to people to send pictures of potholes, is merely a gimmick that may get people involved in sending pictures, but will not get the potholes repaired.
The government had promised that all the potholes would be filled before Ganesh Chaturthi. The festival has ended, but the potholes remain, perhaps they have increased. When such promises are not kept, how can the people rely that the photographs they send will make a difference?
