Pralhad Joshi, MP, on Wednesday took officials of the Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) to task for the bad condition of roads in the city.
Mr. Joshi, along with a few officials and party leaders, went around the city in the morning to get first-hand information on the condition of roads. He found that barring a few stretches, most of the roads were in bad condition, with many potholes developing on them.
Mr. Joshi started the reality check walk from the Court Circle and passed through the road connecting it with Lamington Road. The MP blasted officials of the civic body for not filling up the potholes and clearing the footpaths. He asked the officials remove garbage from main roads regularly. When he reached the end point of Lamington Road, near the railway bridge, he observed that potholes had made driving on the stretch next to impossible.
When Mr. Joshi asked HDMC officials about the road, they said the stretch came under the Highways Department. However, as no official from the department was present during his inspection, Mr. Joshi said a message should be conveyed to the top official of the department that such kind of negligence would not be taken lightly. He also directed HDMC Commissioner Siddalingayya Hiremath to complete the patch-up work with the monsoon almost coming to an end.
When the Commissioner expressed concern over the lack of funds for this, the MP said he would share Rs. 20 lakh form his development fund, while MLC Pradeep Shettar too would give Rs. 20 lakh. Other MLAs and MLCs of Hubballi-Dharwad will be requested to contribute, he said. The MP also appealed to corporators to use part of their ward funds for patch-up work on main roads.
‘No support from govt.’
Later, speaking to reporters, Mr. Joshi alleged that the State government has not been supporting HDMC financially for the past three years. Instead of releasing additional funds, the government has cut the pension grants to the corporation. So, the money collected as tax is being used to disburse pension, he said.
