Potholes irk MNS, contractor beaten in Mumbai

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) took matters in their own hands, instead appealing to the civic body, when they thrashed a civic contractor over deplorable state of roads at Dadar.

On Tuesday MNS activists Sandeep Deshpande and Amey Khopkar asked the contractor SV Jivani, about the potholes on the roads in spite of the contractor finishing repairs on Saturday. The other activists tried to beat him and also asked him to do sit-ups on the road.

“The roads are full of potholes near the Kavi Keshavsut flyover at Dadar. We have already complained to the BMC two months ago. The contractor was awarded the contract for maintenance of the Senapati Bapat road and Kavi Keshavsut flyover for two years,” said Sandeep Deshpande, MNS president.

“The BMC forwarded our complaint to the contractor and he completed the repairs on Saturday. Immediately after he repaired the roads, potholes reappeared on Monday. It clearly means that the contractor is not working as per the norms,” he added.
SV Jivani did not lodge a complaint with police as he says that he has no complaint against anybody.

But the civic body is treating the episode as a crime of obstructing government duty.

“The contractor is working on behalf of the civic body. If anybody punishes them in their own style, we will not tolerate it,” said Aseem Gupta, additional municipal commissioner.

However, the figures given by civic chief Subodh Kumar show that there are no potholes in the city.

There were 3,093 potholes before monsoon started, of which 3,055 have been attended to.