Steps taken to break corruption

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 12 : Kerala Public Works Department Minister G. Sudhakaran on Monday said he had succeeded in breaking the politician-contractor-engineer nexus in his department and introduced certain measures to stem the rot.

"Corruption begins right from the time project estimates are prepared. It goes forward while sourcing materials and at the supervision level. No one will be spared if found indulging in illegalities," Sudhakaran told media here.

The PWD looks after 40,000 km roads in the coastal state, besides civil works of all government buildings.

"We have decided to do away with the practice of submitting revised estimates, which is the biggest grey area. Strict instructions have been given for close supervision of every work. We have now decided to form social audit committees, which will be watchdog bodies with powers to monitor public works," the Minister said.

The Left Democratic Front government came to power after the May 2016 assembly elections under the leadership of Pinarayi Vijayan.

Sudhakaran said that soon after he took over as Minister, the first thing he did was to call a meeting of nearly 1,400 departmental engineers and told them what the new LDF government expected of them.

The Minister said the Kerala Highway Protection Act of 1999 will be properly implemented to provide for the protection and regulation of highway development in the coastal state.