Though the engineers’ two-day strike was called off on Friday, the issue is only at rest till Thursday
The BMC claims have been slammed by citizens and corporators alike. File pic
When the sun broke through after weeks of incessant rain, most were hopeful that the days of navigating between the ever-burgeoning potholes were finally behind them — at least till the next monsoon came round. But, due to a series of unfortunate events coinciding, that wait will just go on longer. First, there was the two-day strike called by the engineers’ association to protest the treatment meted out to Sanjay Darade, chief engineer of road department; and when it was finally called off on Friday evening, the weekend was upon us so the work will now only be tackled after the break.
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Recently, after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis assured Mumbaikars that all the potholes on city roads would be fixed in the next 15 days, the BMC set its deadline as October 5. At the time, it had claimed that till September 30, there were 4,599 potholes in the city of which the rest had been repaired and only 35 remained. Doubting the veracity of these numbers, corporators and citizens slammed the civic body for erroneous information. However, two corporators from MNS — Sandip Deshpande and Santosh Dhuri — forced Darade to stand on the road with a placard that read, “I am responsible for potholes”.
Following the incident, more than 2,500 engineers of the civic body went on strike from Thursday. A senior civic official who was part of agitation said, “The MNS corporators’ act was shameful and unacceptable. The road department is demoralised and all the engineers have decided not to fill a single pothole after this.”
The union steps in
On Friday, while municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta was on leave, union leader Sainath Rajyadhaksha of Brihanmumbai Municipal Engineers Union, said, “We have met additional commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee and gave him our demands, which are the immediate arrests of the two corporators and ensure that they are charged with a non-bailable offence. He assured us that the action would be taken soon, after which we have decided to call off our strike till next Thursday,” adding, “We have also sent a letter to the CM in this regard.” Mukherjee, however, remained unavailable for comment.
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