THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As if making a confession before somebody who was planning to corner him on the issue, the man in charge of road works in the City Corporation admitted in the Council, that met here on Thursday, that city roads were a mess. Works Standing Committee Chairman V S Padmakumar’s resolution in the Council said that the drains in the city were clogged, resulting in water-logging, which has ultimately led to the dilapidated condition of the roads.The nearly 300-km- long roads under the Corporation need extensive repairs owing to the damage caused by the rains, he said. Padmakumar added that the contractors were going on strike from Friday, which means all road works would come to a halt.Though Padmakumar’s intention was to seek financial assistance of Rs 10 crore from the State Government for immediate repair and renovation of roads, it boomeranged, with the UDF leaders blaming the former LDF government, particularly the two former ministers from the city - M Vijayakumar and V Surendran Pillai - for the present situation. The resolution had other drawbacks too, over which the UDF members pounced on the Chairman. They said that the pre-monsoon cleaning of the local body had helped clean many drains, but the water-logging was continuing. This, when the UDF had already condemned the way the pre-monsoon cleaning was planned and executed by the Corporation. The BJP leaders had also said that the cleaning drive was a farce. "The PWD and National Highways have not done the cleaning of the drains which fall under their ambit. Also, the projects undertaken by the KSUDP, Road Fund Board and JICA have left many a road damaged,’’ Padmakumar said. In his resolution, he said that V S Sivakumar, who is the new Minister from the city, must do the needful and allot the money for repairing the roads.The UDF councillors asked why the Corporation had not sought any financial assistance to tide over the crisis during the LDF rule. "In his own way, Padmakumar has agreed that the roads are mostly potholes and puddles. And that the former LDF government did not offer any help to the Corporation in this matter,’’ UDF leader Maheswaran Nair said. Sreekariyam councillor B Vijayakumar said that the Works Chairman had promised to give Rs 5 lakh to each ward to carry out the road works; but now, "nobody knows what has happened to the fund.’’ Though he repeated the question, he was given no answer by the Chairman. The BJP welcomed the resolution of the Corporation seeking an assistance of Rs 10 crore from the State Government.
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