THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Cabinet on Wednesday sanctioned Rs. 157.96 crore for the renovation of roads in the five Corporations. The amount includes the Rs. 74.42 crore sanctioned for Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram last week. The Chief Minister told a post-Cabinet press briefing that Rs. 83.54 crore was sanctioned by Wednesday’s meeting for the Kollam, Thrissur and Kozhikode Corporations. ‘’Work will start immediately,’’ he said. To ensure that only important roads were renovated under the programme, the Cabinet has set two stipulations: One is that only roads with a tarmac width of a minimum of 3.75 metres should be included in the programme. And, the other is that the selected roads should have connectivity to major Corporations or PWD roads.GOVERNMENT TO SEEK EXPLANATIONThe state government will seek an explanation from the secretaries of local bodies for the delay in the settlement of pension dues to farm labourers. All local bodies, except Muvattupuzha municipality, had collected the money from the government between September 1 and 6 on the understanding that the dues were to be settled before Onam. However, the CPM had triggered an agitation parading the farm labourers saying that the UDF had reneged on its promise. This was not true, the CM said. He also promised strong action against officials who failed in their duty. The state government had allocated a little over Rs. 14 crore for settling the dues. The LDF Government had run up dues for the months of January, February and March and had no right to criticise the new government, he added.
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