In a novel initiative, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara asked people to report about potholes in Bengaluru via Whatsapp message, call or e-complain on the civic body’s website to get them repaired at the earliest.

“Report a pothole, get it fixed immediately,” tweeted Parameshwara, who is in-charge of Bengaluru Development as additional post along with Home and Youth Empowerment and Sports.

The Minister has also told netizens to register a complaint on potholes on the civic body’s online redressal forum Sahaaya (help) with the web address, bbmp.sahaaya.in

Notorious for traffic snarls, the city’s pot-holed roads made national news when they claimed the lives of some denizens after heavy downpour last year.

G Veena, 21, riding on a scooter was crushed to death by a truck in October last year in the city when she was trying to avoid a pothole and fell from the scooter.

A 55-year-old man, Anthony Joseph, and his wife Sagai Mary were also killed in the same manner as they tried to negotiate a gaping pothole and were hit by a bus.

As many as four people were killed due to the potholes in a span of 10 days in October after heavy monsoons left the city’s roads damaged.

The city’s civic body commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao said the work on repairing potholes being created by the monsoons in the city was on.

“We are currently working to fill about 50-70 per cent of the potholes left by the rains. Citizens’ complaints will help in attending to the potholes in an easier way,” Rao told IANS here.A

Srinivas Alavilli, a volunteer coordinator for people’s forum Citizens for Bengaluru, said the digital initiative to register complaints makes it easier to denizens to report about potholes to the authorities.

“The effort will be well-worth if the authorities publish data on the complaints, results of the repair work and the expenditure on fixing the potholes,” Alavilli said.

The real solution to potholes lies in empowering ward committees of each of the city’s administrative division and allowing road works to be monitored by local residents, he added.

In October last year, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had set a 15-day deadline to the civic body authorities to fill about 15,000 potholes in the city.

The deadline was, however, missed and many potholes were left unattended.