Mumbai, September 30, 2013: More than a week after Ganeshotsav, the BMC has served notices to Ganesh mandals in the city asking them to fill potholes created while setting up pandals.

Additional Municipal Commissioner (Roads), S V R Srinivas, said, "We do not have the exact number of potholes created by mandals. With more than 10,000 Ganesh mandals in the city, there must be at least a lakh potholes, assuming that every mandal is responsible for 10 potholes each."

As per data on BMC's pothole-tracking website, voiceofcitizen.com, only 37,964 potholes have been reported, of which 1,438 are left to be filled.

"We haveasked ward officers to serve notices to mandals," said Srinivas. While some major mandals confirm that they have received notices, some still

have not.

Lalbaugcha Raja Mandal, which attracted more than one crore devotees during the 10-day festival this year, was also served

a notice.

The mandal, however, replied that it had repaired the potholes a few days after visarjan (immersion of the idol) on September 18.

"There were about 500-600 potholes that had been created as we had to plant barricades on the main road leading up to our mandal. We filled all the potholes as we do every year," said Ashok Pawar, president of Lalbaugcha Raja Mandal.

Swapnil Parab, secretary ofMumbaicha Raja Mandal, said, "We received a notice from the F-south ward office asking us to fill 194 potholes we created. We have filled all potholes and have also replied to the ward office."

Andhericha Raja Mandal's spokesperson, Uday Salian, also said, "We have not received any notice. We have filled up the fifteen potholes that we created. Since we conduct our celebrations in a playground, we do not

dig roads."

Source: The New Indian Express, September 30, 2013