Potholes Appear After A Spell Of Heavy Rains (Pratik Chorge/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)A bench of judges on 18 September questioned the stance of State Governments on refusing to accept the figures provided by Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH) that potholes alone in the last one year had claimed 3,597 lives, as reported by Live Law News Network.
Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta questioned the States decision to sanction contracts for road maintenance if they also claim to be running low on funds. Thus asserting that the States must maintain the roads since they’re the ones constructing them.
“Who is to maintain the roads? Are the people supposed to maintain them” asked the bench.
The Court further remarked that “the number of deaths in road accidents was more than the fatalities caused by terrorist attacks in India and the situation was frightening.”
Assistant to the court as an amicus curiae advocate Gaurav Agrawal said, in regards to the road safety matter, the authorities in-charge cannot comprehend the severity of this situation and neither did they discuss any policies to solve the issues concerned.
An Appeal...
Dear Reader,
As you are no doubt aware, Swarajya is a media product that is directly dependent on support from its readers in the form of subscriptions. We do not have the muscle and backing of a large media conglomerate nor are we playing for the large advertisement sweep-stake.
Our business model is you and your subscription. And in challenging times like these, we need your support now more than ever.
We deliver over 10 - 15 high quality articles with expert insights and views. From 7AM in the morning to 10PM late night we operate to ensure you, the reader, get to see what is just right.
Becoming a Patron or a subscriber for as little as Rs 1200/year is the best way you can support our efforts.