Heavy rain takes toll on Kerala roads

By IANS

Thiruvananthapuram : Supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Palakkad Wednesday found a novel way to protest the state of roads in Kerala. They bathed on a state highway with the water from potholes on road.


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Heavy rains have turned the roads in Kerala into vast stretches of waterlogged potholes and the BJP activists were protesting the government’s inability to carry out road repairs.

When the protest began here, 270 km from the state capital, there were only a handful of BJP activists, but soon curious onlookers also joined in by bathing in the muddy waters on the Thrissur-Pallakad highway.

Not only the state has had heavy rains this monsoon, Kerala has no full-fledged minister for public works department (PWD) after T.U. Kuruvilla resigned in wake of a land deal scam. In July, Kuruvilla had said the road repairs for the entire state would be carried out by Aug 31.

The Kerala High Court Tuesday severely criticised the state government, and observed that the government was taking no action and only giving mere assurances.

“The condition of the Trissur- Palakkad road is not just bad, but there is no road at all,” said Justice S. Sirijagan during the hearing of a petition from the contractors’ association. The contractors are asking the state’s public works department for early settlement of their dues amounting to nearly Rs. 400 million.

To the high court’s observation, Chief Minister V.S.Achuthanandan rewsponded that the road repairs could not be carried out because of the heavy rain.

“I have checked and found out that there is no shortage of funds, and rains are a problem,” said Achuthanandan after weekly cabinet meeting Wednesday.

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