.jpg?width=1200)
The roads in Pune have deteriorated significantly following the heavy rains, with many major routes now riddled with potholes. This has created hazardous conditions for commuters and is causing severe traffic jams across the city. Meanwhile, several Punekars have taken to social media to criticise these perilous conditions, calling it a "national disgrace."
Sudhir Mehta, former Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) president, shared a video of one of the pothole-riddled roads on Monday and wrote, "#Pune's infrastructure, especially our roads and lack of cleanliness, has become a national disgrace. There's no justification for a city that's the educational, automotive, and IT hub of India—blessed with natural beauty and perfect weather—to be a blight on the country's map. It's a shameful reality that we must confront head-on. Pune deserves better, and it's time to demand it."
Netizens agreed with Mehta's post. One user commented, "Pune's city engineer, roads department, and projects division head should be dismissed from service (not transferred). Unless accountability is established in the bureaucracy, we will keep voting for different political parties, but the ground reality will not change."
"Responsibility should be fixed, and quality control should be in place. The municipality should tell us who constructed the road, when it was constructed, when maintenance was done, who conducted the quality check, and who authorized the payments," wrote another user.
"Contractors and PMC are responsible for this disaster. They just want to make more and more money. No standards are maintained in any department. They reconstruct the same roads twice a year. Shame on us that we are not doing anything to prevent this waste of our hard-earned money," said a third user.
A fourth user noted, "Pune is completely ignored by politicians, and administrators are showing zero accountability. The city needs strong and visionary leadership, which we have not seen in the last two decades. The city is lacking basics like roads, water supply, and garbage management. Public transport is the worst."
Check out the reactions below:
