Make engineers accountable for bad roads, HC tells govt.

Court says right to good and safe road is a fundamental right

The Kerala High Court on Friday observed that the government needs to make respective senior PWD engineers accountable for the bad shape of roads.

Justice Devan Ramachandran made the oral observation when a petition relating to the bad condition of roads came up for hearing.

The court orally observed that the PWD engineers should be held responsible for the bad condition of roads and that they should be made to pay for their lapses if any accident took places due to bad condition of roads.

The judge said the engineers at the highest echelon should be on the field and should keep a tab on the condition of the roads under their control on a regular basis. They should ensure that whenever potholes developed, they were filled on time. Had the respective engineers be made accountable, the deaths of two young persons in road accidents in the State could have been averted.

The engineers job was not to sit in offices and clear bills of contractors. The government should issue an order making them responsible for the bad condition of roads. The government pleader submitted that the government was in the process of taking a policy decision in this regard.

The court observed that the right to good and safe road was a fundamental right of every citizen. The judge also noted that most of the roads did not have footpath for pedestrians. The pedestrian equally had a right to have a footpath along roads. In fact, the pedestrian were forced to walk on the roads because of the absence of footpath.

The court pointed out that there was hardly any lighting along some of the highways and roads. The court said the government organised night walk for women to send out a message that women could walk fearlessly on the streets at night. The judge wondered how many women dared come out at night on the roads after the event. No one could walk on these roads because there was no lighting at all.

The court asked the government pleader to address these issues and inform the court about the lack of funds at the disposal of the local bodies to repair damaged and potholed roads under the control of local bodies.