Mumbai's 'lone warrior' welcomes SC committee recommendation

In 2015, Dadarao Bhillore, a vegetable vendor, had lost his son Prakash Bhillore to a pothole-related accident. He was seated behind his cousin on a two-wheeler when the front wheel of the motorbike fell into a pothole. Prakash was thrown off the bike and eventually died of a brain haemorrhage.

Since then, the 46-year-old Dadarao has been repairing potholes voluntarily to ensure no other father has to lose his son.

Dadarao welcomed the decision of the expert committee assisting the SC to hold the road owning agency or contractor criminally or financially liable for the deaths due to potholes. "I have been filling up potholes for the past three years. While the state of roads has improved after the BMC stopped using paver blocks, there are still some roads made up of 6-inch of asphalt on paver blocks. Those roads are vulnerable to potholes. If the BMC would have taken the pothole menace seriously some years ago, many more lives could be saved," Bhillore to DNA.

Following this incident activists had come together to ensure Dadarao's family gets justice. But, that BMC allegedly tried to shrug off its responsibility and blamed a junior worker in the civic body for it.

"The road contractor fled. The civic body has to take accountability of such incidents. We even approached the lokayukta. Some people filed cases against the BMC as it is the service provider, but the courts rejected that claim. So we welcome the SC committee decision to hold the agency and contractors responsible," said Godfrey Pimenta of Watchdog Foundation.