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In Idgah Hills, count potholes, find coins & get rewarded too!

BHOPAL: For some, throwing pennies in water brings good luck. On Sunday, residents of Idgah Hills gave a totally new spin to the legend. In an attempt to highlight the poor condition of roads in the city, they dropped coins in potholes on roads and rewarded anyone who could find it. “For over a year, residents of Idgah Hills have been demanding repair of potholed roads. The road from Idgah to Gurdwara connects five colonies and beyond,” said a resident Prem Wadhwani.
A poster on a car read ‘find coins, count potholes and get rewarded’. Overnight showers had insured the potholes were full of water. The drive to seek attention of the government began from near the Gurdwara and residents marched up to the very end of the Idgah Hills near TB hospital.

Dozens of children tried their luck. The campaign lasted for about one and half hours. Only 12 succeeded in their endeavour, said one of the organisers. Some calculated 215 potholes along the stretch which has a heavy vehicular traffic given its proximity to educational institutions.
The colony has around 1,000 houses and going by BMC records, property tax recovery from the area is above average. “We have demanded that municipal corporation take responsibility and repair the roads. We pay our taxes to the corporation and getting good infrastructure is our basic right,” he added.

Residents complained that best practices in civic engineering works are not being followed. “Every time there is a new project, a contractor comes and starts digging the road. Digging work has become a perennial affair. There is no coordination between different agencies, and there is hardly any planning,” he added.
When contacted, local corporator Mahesh Makwana washed his hand off by saying that the road does not fall under the purview of the BMC.

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