Congress holds ‘pothole exhibition’ in Mumbai to shame BMC

Congress workers, on Tuesday, held a ‘potholes photo exhibition’ near the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation  (BMC) office in Mumbai to highlight the plight of Mumbaikars and mock the BJP-Sena alliance.

The day-long exhibition had around 400 photos of potholes from the wards represented by Shiv Sena, BJP and MNS corporators. Congress legislator Nitesh Rane criticised the BMC’s ruling coalition for jeopardising the lives of city dwellers “through their corrupt practices”.

“These two coalition parties are ruling BMC for last many years and have put lives of people in the city in danger through their corrupt practices. And these potholes (on roads) are an example of their misdeeds,” Rane said.

According to Rane, the pictures were shot on the day when BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta took a stock of road conditions and had said that there were only 62 potholes in the city.

The exhibited pictures carry details like location, name of ward and constituency.

“I don’t say that there are no potholes in the wards represented by Congress corporators. But if there are any, then let the ruling party corporators show them,” he added.

Former lawmaker Nilesh Rane, who was also present on the occasion, alleged that the civic corporation was currently in a mess due to “corruption in awarding road contracts by BMC officials”.

“BMC’s annual budget runs up over Rs. 40,000 crore. The Sena-BJP leaders have failed to run the city. Now that (BMC) elections are approaching, it is high time that people should know the realities and these potholes are a tip of the iceberg of the corruption done by them,” Rane further alleged.

He claimed that they had invited Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, Mumbai’s Guardian Minister Subhash Desai, corporators and other civic body officials for the exhibition, but no one turned up.

With inputs from PTI