THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Actor and MLA K B Ganesh Kumar became emotional in the Kerala Assembly on Friday when he described the traffic logjam he experienced during a journey from Thiruvananthapuram to Kottarakkara in Kollam after hearing the news of the cardiac arrest of his mother. When his car reached Venjaramoodu, it was caught in a traffic snarl for about 20 minutes.
Later, when he reached home after clearing the traffic snarls, his mother had passed away just five minutes before he reached home. He described his painful memories during a calling attention motion he raised to discuss technical issues in issuing stop memo for road construction by Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and the consultant raj in various departments.
The traffic snarl in Venjaramodu was a result of the stop memo issued by the KIIFB for the construction of the flyover in the junction. He wondered whether a financial agency can issue stop memos to road contractors citing technical issues. “If so, the bank which provides home loan to a customer can also stop the work of the house for the reason that the design of the house was not in tune with the design concept of the bank,” he said.
The construction of KIIFB roads which were announced during the 2018-19 period in Pathanapuram has not been started. If there is any delay in acquiring land for the construction of a road at a particular stretch, it is not right to issue a stop memo by the KIIFB for the entire project,” he said. He also wondered when there are enough high paid qualified engineers in the PWD department or other departments like water resources, why are departments going after consultancies spending crores of rupees as consultation fee.
If the departments want to enhance the talent of their engineers in tune with time, they will have to be sent for better training and should use their talent here instead of going after consultancies, he said. There is an acute shortage of surveyors in the revenue department which is affecting various infra projects. Since there is limitation for appointing new surveyors, the revenue department should explore the possibility of seeking the service of contract surveyors in the department, he said.
His passionate speech also received support from other legislators cutting across party lines with A N Shamseer intervening during the speech saying the issue raised by Ganesh is very serious and urgent attention is required. MLAs D K Murali and K Babu also intervened over the issue.
While replying, PWD Minister Mohamed Riyaz said, “For ensuring the quality of the works, the KIIFB has suggested a set of guidelines. All these guidelines of the KIIFB cannot be changed, but the issues raised by the MLAs would be considered seriously,” said the minister. A meeting held on July 27 has decided to speed up the work on various projects in the state, he said. Intervening in the discussion, Revenue Minister K Rajan said an independent survey system for various departments cannot be accepted. But the department has taken steps to make available more surveyors,” he said.