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Justice Devan Ramachandran of the Kerala High Court on Thursday criticised the authorities concerned for not carrying out long-lasting repairs of roads in the State.

The Court heard two petitions filed for highlighting the poor state of roads, lack of proper street lighting, hanging cables and illegal parking on pavements in Kochi city.

Justice Ramachandran orally observed that, “if the engineers did not know how to repair roads that could withstand the rain, they should be asked to resign and go. There were several engineers waiting to get into service.”

At the offset, Justice Ramachandran remarked that "once again after monsoon, complaints about bad roads have started coming in".

In its previous judgement, the Court had fixed the primary responsibility on the concerned engineers/staff of the respective departments/ local self-government institutions to ensure that repair work is done properly and future repair works are noticed and done without any delay.

The Court said that it “cannot allow administrators to be forgetful and it will take steps to remind them of their constitutional and statutory duties.”

Smt S. Krishna and Sri K. Thomas, amicus curie to the Court had informed the Court that the authorities are having to conduct repairs on the same road that they conducted repairs on last yar. On this issue the Court remarked:

“The issue has to be taken seriously because the state can not afford to to conduct repairs on the roads every six months, which appears to be the norm.”

Hence, the Court directed the Public Works Department, Corporation of Kochi, Cochin Smart Mission Limited Directors of Urban Affair and Panchayat to take measures on immediately. The Court further said that hereon, ‘personal responsibility’ will be adjudged for the authorities and officers responsible.

The matter is adjourned till 14th December.

Case Title: C.P. Ajithkumar v. State of Kerala