Drains Left Uncovered, Grates Missing: Kerala High Court Seeks Response From Kochi Corporation, CSML

The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Cochin Corporation and Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML) to file a report on the missing grating covering the drains on the roads in the city. 

The matter came to the notice of the Court from a newspaper report in the 'Malayala Manorama' that the gratings were missing on certain roads in Kochi, covering the holes to draw water into the drains, and this is likely to injure pedestrians and motorists, particularly two-wheelers.

Justice Devan Ramachandran orally remarked that "This is a city which has to grow, and it can grow only if the pedestrians can walk".

The veracity of the news will totally have to be answered by the Corporation and Cochin Smart Mission Limited (CSML), who is stated to have completed the work on the roads in question, it added. 

The Court directed the Standing Counsel for CSML Advocate M U Vijayalakshmi and Standing Counsel for Cochin Corporation Advocate Janardhanan Shenoy to file their response to the said newspaper report. 

When a similar matter was taken up earlier this month, the Court pulled up the Kochi Corporation and the Public Works Department over their failure to take adequate action for repairing the faulty roads in the city even after delivering repeated directions.

The Case has been posted for 1st August. 

Case Title: Pauly Vadakkan v. Corporation of Cochin