Mumbai, July 16: After five people lost their lives due to damaged roads in Mumbai earlier this month, Maharashtra's PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil came up with a bizarre defence saying that condition of roads cannot be blamed alone for the number of pothole-ridden accidents in Mumbai. "I did not mean to hurt anyone's sentiments, I had made a general statement", Patil said on his earlier statement 'potholes cannot be entirely blamed for accidents.

When the Minister was asked about the frequent deaths in Mumbai due to bad roads, he said, "When you talk about a death in such an accident, you forget that five lakh other people have travelled on the same road”.

While speaking in Sangli on Saturday the Minister said that people cannot put the entire blame on the condition of roads alone. The Congress has termed Patil’s comment as "insensitive". "We condemn the minister for his insensitive comment. He was questioning people's view of roads, but he will understand what people can do after elections," said state Congress General Secretary Sachin Sawant.

On Sunday, Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam informed that there were 20,000 potholes on Mumbai roads, and not 300 as stated by the Bombay Municipal Corporation before the Bombay High Court.

Reports inform that in the last one-month, bad conditions of roads and potholes have claimed six lives in Mumbai, five of which were in Kalyan, while one was in Navi Mumbai. In all the cases, people on two-wheelers have hit a pothole and have lost their lives.

According to a report by PTI, when the Minister was asked about people slamming civic bodies, Patil said, "People have a habit of changing their opinions constantly." "For a while they like something and then soon pass a negative remark (on the same issue)," he was quoted in the report.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 16, 2018 11:20 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).