[nutmello]

hi all
iam contemplating to file a PIL at karnataka High Court on coming monday against the Karnataka Road evelopment Co ltd and contractor RNN and Sons, hubli for bad quality high work from mysore to Madikeri.
i frequently travel onthis road and i have noticed that within one year of opening the road for traffic, right from Metropole circle ( starting pont) in mysore, you can see huge pot holes coming up for every 10 meters or less. you can see ( if you walk) that the top most surface is already porous allowing the water to seep inside. all the way up to kushalnagar, the road is opening up or cracking big time at the edges, and at the tyre tracks.
i consulted a few experts from road engineering dept ( retd officers, defence officers) who are of the opinion that the contractor and the consultant have done a poor job, and due to improper aggregate formula, bad JOB-MIX and poor supervision the road has deteriorated so quickly.
the experts say that due to improper compaction of different grades of stones, and poor quality, the top ( 5 cm) needs to be completely removed and new layer has to be laid. this means almost 60% of road needs to be relaid.
also the eperts suggested that , if any one dares to take up such cases, their own life could be at stake due to enormous corruption involved in every stage of such contratcs.
what should i do?

[Rocky_Balboa]

Wouldnt involving the media, be better? I have seen TV9 focus on many such issues.
Ive been thinking on similar lines on exposing the ORR Bellandur, Mahadevpura junctions, for the service roads are horrible to drive.

[shapath]

mr nutmello. Any update on this issue. possible share the same.

[Mr_Bean]

nutmello, there is absolutely no doubt you are risking your life trying to do this.

See what has happ to the 2G & CWG scam, the govt is doing nothing to bring justice.

[aargee]

@Nutmello - I appreciate your effort whole heartedly

Like you, I too sometimes feel enraged & feel like filing a PIL on several such incidents. Let me put forth, few of my thoughts, give a thought on them & you can consider filing a PIL. Not that you haven't thought, but probably, mine could give you a different thought altogether...

Time - this is a biggest hurdles for everything; unfortunately everyone in our country think delaying things are considered prestegious factor; CM arriving 1 hour late etc. So no wonder justice dept takes their own sweet time to proceed. Add to that, Lawyers asking for stay. So for each hearing, you or your lawyer has to make a presence.

Patience - If you're able to withhold this case for about 2-3 years, you're really a man of patience. Trust me that would only be a 10 or 20% on the progress of the case.

Priority - When the time keeps running & patience is still withheld, there're times even when the court will adjourn the case on occassion of several other top priority (what top priority? that will also take generations) case & over a period your PIL is bound to take the bottom of stack

Support - While your effort, money, time & patience are being spent here, the other guy, keep bribing the Govt & obtain another contract & keep moving on his business. He has his own set of lawyers, money to support him. But for you? Unless you run another organization, you're bound to do all by yourself.

Power & Vitamin M - Needless to say what's the role of them in our country.

Safety & outcome are other factors that would be the reward of your patience. Give a deep thought on proceeding further. Ask yourself several times if you're enough patience for years together.

The same guy would complete several other projects by the time the verdict comes for this PIL. So, just give a thought, they'd remain shoddy job too.

However, if you're able to rope several people together in unity, capture media's attention in all possible ways such as internet, newspaper, even magazines & most importantly TV, you're already in the winning team. But sadly the justice dept is something that kills everyone's time. Like I said before, everything will be hot now, but over a period of time, things will settle down & more important things will take the front seat & people will forget this one.

Good Luck my friend

[nutmello]

after much thought, i have filed the PIL in high court of karnataka. lot of effort has gone in preparing the papers, technically it was challenging as my RIT application is still not replied.
over night , i see pot holes are patched up, but that too again a shbby work. you can see esp in front of balaji palace hotel near Hunsur, almost a mile full of patches.
photographs, expert opinions, user feedbacks, accidents after the road work is thro, death of cattle on the high way, water gushing into houses, due to unscientific box drainage, poor camber of the road, lack of application of mind in designing the road side culverts, collapse of road surface to poor compactiing, cracks in surface wide enough to catch two wheeler tyres, lack of road signs, the list goes on....
told my wife not to open doors for strangers!
got two dogs today.
the best part is i got a lawyer who is too brillant ( BE MBA LLB) for this suit. he did not charge me any thing!

[Ragul]

Good luck Nutmello! One thing you can do is publicize the names and addresses of the contractor and officials who executed such shoddy work.
Social stigma at least makes people sit up and take notice.

Can you post the bad stretch of roads you are talking about on Google maps?

Thanks

[supremeBaleno]

@nutmello, really appreciate what you have done. While the rest of us just moan about things, you have actually done something which 'could' help stem the rot.

A year or so ago, a stretch of the road leading to the Mavelikara railway station near my home in Kerala had big blue-metal stones in lieu of the road. Like everyone, we also just cursed the authorities while negotiating the road. One day, a lady riding a 2-wheeler loses her balance leading to she & her young girl falling on the road. While the lady fell to the kerb-side, the kid fell on to the road and a private bus coming behind runs over her head. As usual huge public uproar (that lasts only few days) and the next day the road is tarred. If only one of us had filed a PIL or RTI, the kid would not have lost its life. But then we are bothered only when it affects us, right ?

Currently the road in front of my home has huge potholes (1 - 1.5 feet deep) at atleast 3 places in a 1-km stretch. Due to the heavy rains in Kerala, these potholes remain filled with dirty water that conceals their depth and the inherent threat. I shudder to think of the consequences of a biker losing his/her balance and falling. The ward councillor just won the recent elections and is also the chairman - he was senior to me in college. Before the elections he was all around the place, smiling and asking for votes. Not to be seen anymore.