Mumbai, July 30: The dangerous potholes in the city takes away several precious lives every year. In one such tragic incident, Dadarao Bihore, a Mumbai resident, lost his 16-year-old son because of a pothole on the road three years ago. On that fateful day, his son's Prakash's bike fell into a deep pothole on rainwater clogged Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) in Mumbai. Ever since then, he has been on a mission to fill up the potholes, and on Sunday he filled up the 556th pothole in the city, according to an ANI report.

Speaking to ANI, Bilhore said, "I don't want people to face the same fate as my son, Prakash. I will keep working till India becomes pothole-free. Our nation has a huge population. If even one lakh people start filling potholes, India will become pothole-free." Around six people have already lost their lives in and around Mumbai, due to potholes in this monsoon season.

A week back,  disenchanted by the lackadaisical approach shown by the civic body towards the pothole-ridden roads in Mumbai, two Mahim locals - Irfan Machhiwala and Mushtaq Ansari - have taken the task upon themselves to make the Western Express Highway safer. Machhiwala and Ansari have started filling the potholes using mud and concrete mix, along with levelling the uneven road patches on either sides of the expressway.

Malishka, the renowned Mumbai-based radio jockey, has come up with one more meme highlighting the grim picture of Mumbai's bad roads like she did last year. In her new video, she has slammed the civic body for leaving the island city in shambles. The video features the popular Marathi film song "Zingat" from Sairat, on which the RJ is seen dancing and mouthing the lyrics that say, "Mumbai Geli Khadyaat" or "Mumbai has fallen in a pothole." Figuratively, the lyrics mean that "Mumbai has gone to the dogs" since so many roads in Mumbai are in a bad condition.

Opposition parties Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam has launched the latest campaign to protest against the rising potholes, whereby he has urged the citizens to click the pictures of potholes in their areas and report it to the authorities. Besides this, he has also come up with a hashtag-- #chalo_pothole_ginne, which means, "let's count the potholes."

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 30, 2018 09:50 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).