CPI(M) alleges corruption and preferential treatment in award of NH-66 work

The Hindu

23-05-2025

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretariat has flagged alleged big-ticket corruption and preferential treatment in the award of contracts for National Highway-66 construction work in Kerala.
CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan told a press conference that contractors involved in NH-66 construction in Kerala had executed electoral bonds estimated at ₹980 crore in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for official patronage in the award of Central works.
He noted that in 2023, the BJP had accused the construction firm responsible for the collapse of an elevated section of the under-construction NH-66 in Malappuram district on May 19 of astronomical corruption, pegged at ₹38,000 crore, in executing the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project in Telangana.
He said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had surmounted several political and administrative impediments, including impossible conditions set by the Central government, to make NH-66, a project abandoned by the Oommen Chandy government, a reality.
Mr. Govindan said the Centre made an unusual demand that Kerala pay for the land acquisition, prompting the State to raise ₹6,000 crore via the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board as compensation to landowners.
The CPI(M) lauded Union Minister for Road and Highways Nitin Gadkari for blacklisting the errant construction company and taking proactive steps to expedite the rectification works.
He said the Congress leadership attempted to blame the NH-66 collapse on the LDF despite the government having no role in the work execution.
Mr. Govindan said the Congress' opposition to the LDF lacked political or policy content and was patently hollow and catalysed by pure political spite and envy for the State government's nine years of people-centric good governance.
'The Congress has recurrently attempted to derail Kerala's development. It made the anti-development campaign a political programme after the LDF stormed back to power for a second consecutive term on a development and welfare platform in 2021. The United Democratic Front then realised that rhetoric, hyperbole, muckraking, and grandstanding do not win elections. But development, welfare, and public service delivery do,' he said.
Mr. Govindan said neither the elections, politics, nor policy animated the Congress as much as infighting for the prospective Chief Ministership did. 'K Sudhakaran, K. Muraleedharan, V.D. Satheesan, Shashi Tharoor, and Ramesh Chennithala have thrown their hat into the ring. Other dark horses might enter the ruthless rat race for the elusive title,' he said.