THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Corporation Council that met here on Thursday witnessed unruly scenes over the decision of the State Government to hand over the responsibility of repairing Corporation roads to the PWD. While the LDF accused the UDF of trying to bypass the concept of decentralisation by snatching the right of a local body to repair roads under its purview, the UDF members said that the LDF had no right to speak about road maintenance after failing to take up any major road work in the city ever since it came to power last November. The State Government had announced a total of Rs 157.78 crore for road development in Corporations. Of which, Rs 42 crore was set aside for the capital. The norms say that only roads with at least 3.75 metres width be considered for repair. However, the Corporation roads are mostly three metres wide or less. A resolution introduced in the Council by Works Standing Committee Chairman V S Padmakumar said that the government’s decision must be seen as a major policy change. The move would lead to centralised corruption and it will also encourage departmentalisation, he said. BJP member M R Rajiv said that in the newly-formed wards, which were earlier panchayats, most of the roads do not fall under the norms. The Corporation had submitted a list of nearly 300 roads which needed repair to the government. Of this, only 120 roads are eligible to be developed, which means the majority of wards and councillors would suffer due to the unscientific norms. However, UDF members said that the Corporation should have approached the government or Urban Affairs Minister and informed about the shortcomings in the norms and tried to correct them, instead of sitting over the list for over a month now. Sreekariyam councillor Vijayakumar said that the Works Standing Committee Chairman has called tenders for road works in his own ward for Rs 57 lakh, whereas in many other wards, including Sreekariyam, no tenders have been called for road works. The UDF members then flocked to the floor of the Council, lifting placards hailing the State Government for allotting Rs 42 crore to the Corporation for road works. Amidst the din, the Mayor called for voting of the resolution and it was passed.
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