Mayor takes off the gloves

The pothole menace on the city roads has opened a war of words between the district administration and the Kochi Corporation.

Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain came out against District Collector M.G. Rajamanickam on Tuesday against his reported statement that the city roads developed potholes because of the failure of the city administration to carry out pre-monsoon preventive repair works.

The statement of the Collector was baseless, the Mayor said. Potholes were there on most of the roads owned by the Public Works Department over which the District Collector had administrative control, she said. The local body had repaired most of the roads that were under its purview and slabs were provided for most of the drains. The district administration should have focused on making its roads navigable, she said in a statement here on Tuesday.