Slamming the Public Works Department and the Kochi Corporation Secretary for the poor maintenance of city roads, the Kerala High Court on Thursday directed them to file a status report detailing the names of the engineers and contractors responsible for each of the bad roads, and also the action taken against them.
Justice Devan Ramachandran passed the order while dealing with a petition relating to the bad condition of city roads.
Amici Curiae appointed by the court in the case pointed out that the observations and orders of the High Court on repairing the bad roads had turned futile because most of the roads in the city had gone into a state of disrepair.
The court said that it had already held that the primary responsibility for the maintenance of roads vested with the engineers concerned. If they were unable to do so, they were expected to go to the higher authorities. The court had issued orders on this several months ago, but nothing appeared to have changed at the ground level.
The directions of the court could not be “an empty claptrap”, but must be obeyed scrupulously. If the roads were bad today, then it means that the orders of the court were being violated, the court observed.
The court added that it was extremely tragic if they did not comply with the directives of it and the stakeholders and the engineers concerned were forcing the court to act very strongly.
The court said that contractors and engineers would certainly be taken to task, particularly, when at the first sight of monsoon, “the surfaces of roads seemed to be withering away.” This cannot not be tolerated any further.
The court also cautioned the engineers and contractors that it would not shy away from taking the maximum action against them, as was warranted in law and that this would be done without exception.
