The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition borrowed the purported words of Public Works Department Minister G. Sudhakaran to taunt Finance Minister Thomas Isaac in the Assembly on Monday.
Mr. Sudhakaran had at a public function compared the Inspection Authority (Technical and Administrative) of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) to Bakasura, a mythical demon in the epic Mahabharata with a preternatural appetite for food and human flesh.
He complained that KIIFB officials invariably turned down every project submitted by the PWD.
“They devoured PWD projects preternaturally like a Bakasura,” Mr. Sudhakaran said.
The Minister warned that the PWD would not take responsibility for the construction and upkeep of KIIFB-funded roads.
Congress leader K.C. Joseph used Mr. Sudhakaran’s words to berate Dr. Isaac’s financial policy and KIIFB projects, which he characterised as non-starters.
Mr. Sudhakaran’s caustic take on KIIFB officials was perceived by some quarters as an extension of an alleged feud between the Ministers in their home turf in Alappuzha.
‘Criminals in party’
Recently, Mr. Sudhakaran had griped about “criminals in the CPI(M) in Alappuzha”, who, he said, leaked goings-on inside party committees to journalists routinely.
The local media, in turn, helped the group, their primary source on CPI(M) workings, spread the word that he was in some inexplicable way responsible for the defeat of the LDF candidate in Aroor.
Mr. Sudhakaran, a poet and avid reader of classical verse, had come under fire from the UDF for equating its candidate, Shanimol Usman of the Congress, to Putana, another demoness from the Mahabharata, during the heat of the byelection campaign.
Meanwhile, in a Facebook post, viewed as a retort to Mr. Sudhakaran, KIIFB said it had withheld funding for a few PWD road projects after the inspectors found the schemes did not meet the national standards.
Sweeping powers
KIIFB said the Assembly had unanimously accorded its inspectors sweeping powers to decline infrastructure projects that did not meet the required technical standards. The PWD could rectify the flaws in the road projects and resubmit them for sanction.
