The story of potholes claiming lives in Bengaluru is both sad and alarming. Not only are lives being tragically lost in avoidable accidents, but alarmingly, the surviving victims are being held primarily responsible for the deaths of those who don’t make it, while the civic agencies responsible for repair of the roads are treated more lightly.

Only recently, the Banasawadi traffic police booked a retired Army man, Abraham, for the death of his wife, Jolly, 45, who was killed after his bike hit a pothole on Kammanahalli Main Road.

And on September 18, 2015, the police held the husband of 25-year-old techie, Stuti Tripathi Pandey, responsible for her death after she fell off their bike when he tried to avoid a pothole on a flyover in Devarbisnahalli on Old Airport Road.

Sadly, despite the literally gaping evidence of negligence by civic agencies, the police continue to treat their engineers and contractors as accused number two or three in such cases, while the motorists or bikers, who suffer the tragic consequences of their callousness, take the brunt of the blame.

The trend has raised concern and anger among Bengalureans who feel that the onus must lie with the civic agencies concerned in such cases.

Traffic expert, M.N. Sreehari, agrees that it is illogical to book the commuters in fatal accidents caused by the poor condition of roads.

“Even if the police book the bikers or motorists, the case against them will not stand in the courts for obvious reasons After all, they have not committed any murder. While under the law, the rider has to be booked, practically speaking, it is the civicagency’s officials and contractors who need to be punished,” he says.

While recalling that around 20 years ago an official was arrested for the bad design of the Bengaluru-Msyuru highway, which saw frequent accidents, he notes that this is quite rare.

“It was after I moved the court, that the official was held responsible for these accidents on the highway. So someone has to approach the courts with strong evidence against civic agencies and contractors for road accidents caused by potholes. It will help the court decide who should be held responsible in such cases. The officials too will then be careful in maintenance of the city’s infrastructure,” he maintains. But former Director General and Inspector General of Police, Dr. D. V. Guruprasad , sees nothing wrong in the police taking action against the motorist or biker responsible for an accident. “Whatever be the condition of the road , the rider needs to be careful to avoid a mishap. If an accident takes place, no matter what the reason, he or she has to be booked. Of course, if potholes have caused the accident, then the civic authorities should also be booked for contributory negligence,” he says.

He, in fact, strongly supports the proposed amendment of the Motor Vehicle Act, to hike the penalty for negligent driving. “It is very rare for a motor vehicle driver to be jailed. So it is necessary to introduce severe imprisonment for road death cases,” he argues.

Filling potholes is a huge scam: Expert “The BBMP has no emergency response team to fill up potholes regularly. Instead, it waits for the number of potholes to increase and then calls for tenders. Even then the potholes are not filled scientifically. It is a huge scam. Every time there is road cutting, neither the BDA, BWSSB or BESCOM seem to be equipped to restore them and the BBMP too ends up either doing a shoddy job or not doing it at all. There is no mechanism to fill potholes speedily even in front of the chief minister’s residence,” rues urban expert R.K. Misra.

At a coordination meeting with the chief secretary and civic agencies a demand was made for an immediate response team in the BBMP backed with a special fund to fill potholes, he reveals.

“This way potholes can be filled up regularly as and when they appear, with a major infrastructure chief engineer monitoring the whole process, as well as the road cutting and restoring. The BBMP, which collects the road cutting charge, must also restore it,” he said, adding “We are demanding a website linking different departments so that people know who has to be blamed.” Activists like Dr Meenakshi Bharath, and V. Ravichandar too are clear that no one but the civic agency concerned is responsible for accidents caused by the poor condition of roads.

“Considering the increasing number of incidents, the civic agencies have a huge responsibility. They need to not only fix the potholes, but also footpaths,” says Dr Bharath. She however, also advises people to be more careful on the roads and make sure to wear a helmet even if riding pillion on bikes.

Mr Ravichandar finds the callousness of government authorities in the face of loss of life due to potholes, open drains, loose wires and so on, appalling. “There is zero regard for human life. Post every mishap no one seems accountable,” he deplores.

The way out could be to identify the contractors responsible for such deaths and ban them from bidding for government contracts for five years, suggest activists. Also, the concerned government engineer / superior should be suspended pending investigation, and booked under sections relevant for causing death due to negligence , they add.