Corporators injured as bike falls into pothole

Mysuru: It is not uncommon for ordinary residents to complain about potholes and bad roads to their representatives in the civic bodies. However, recently, two corporators themselves got a taste of the apathy in repairing roads when they met with an accident in which their bike fell into a pothole.

The interesting part is that the accident took place when their bike was negotiating a pothole-filled road just a few metres away from the official residence of Mysuru City Corporation commissioner next to CFTRI School in Yadavagiri.

The two—Giriyabhovi Palya ward corporator C Sridhar and Gayatripuram 1st Stage corporator G S Satyaraj—both from Congress, were travelling on a bike to attend a protest when the accident took place. Sridhar, who was riding the bike, could not manoeuvre the potholes on the stretch.

“As one of the potholes was deep and huge, I could not avoid it. Myself and Satyaraj were thrown off the bike. While I suffered a fracture on my right hand, Satyaraj received injuries on his head and on the shoulder,” Sridhar told TOI.

Some corporators who were traveling in a car immediately shifted the two to a nearby private hospital. While Sridhar had a plaster on his forearm, Satyaraj was treated for injuries.

Expressing anger against the MCC authorities, Sridhar said that the city is filled with potholes but there has been no effort to fill it. “There are potholes in some areas which are as big as swimming pools. We had demanded repair of roads in the council several times, but there has been no progress,” he said.

Satyaraj, who had escaped with minor injuries, and has recovered also, told TOI that all the 65 ward corporators were demanding the commissioner to take up road repair work. “During Dasara, when we demanded, we were told that the repair work would start after rain recedes. Now though there is no rain, the authorities are yet to take up the work,” he said.

“We were luckily to escape from the accident with minor injuries as we both were wearing helmets. Otherwise we would have ended in hospital with serious injuries,” Satyaraj said.