‘Infrastructure development will be given top priority’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For V K Prasanth, MLA designate for Vattiyoorkavu, improvement in road infrastructure will be the first priority. Prasanth, who had conducted extensive election campaign in the constituency, said that he could understand the issue of infrastructure inadequacy while he was campaigning.
“Many stretches coming under the constituency need to be widened as the existing roads can’t accommodate the volume of traffic.Development of Kachani and Nettayam roads will be taken up at the earliest. Around Rs 120 crore was utilized for various projects in Vattiyoorkavu during my tenure as mayor. And the government has already allotted Rs 23 crore for development of Vattiyoorkavu Junction,” said Prasanth during a press meet organized by Kesari Memorial Journalists’ Trust.
Talking about the new assignment as MLA, Prasanth said that he is not apprehensive about new responsibility and will form a collective of youngsters for development projects in Vattiyoorkavu. It was a similar collective that helped him implement many projects as mayor.
Prasanth expressed his gratitude for the people who had cast their votes for him and party workers who campaigned for him.
“The ground-level campaign by party workers and leaders helped to bring the BJP and UDF votes to LDF, which could be seen in the margin of 14,465 votes. In spite of several challenges, we won the election in Vattiyoorkavu and it shows that people are not biased with regard to caste and creed,” Prasanth said.
A grand reception was accorded to him at the corporation office on Friday. LDF convenor A Vijayaraghavan inaugurated the event.
“Prasanth took up the responsibility assigned to him by the party. Thiruvananthapuram as a state capital requires more basic facilities such as improvement in infrastructure and flood mitigation measures. We hope that Prasanth will perform well in the new responsibility,” said Vijayaraghavan.
Corporation health standing council chairperson K Sreekumar, CITU leader Vijayakumar and Kerala municipal common service union representatives M S Shine and P S Suresh also spoke on the occasion.
Prasanth, who is yet to resign from his post as city corporation mayor, cleared pending files and also assured redressal of grievances of people.
“Regular review meetings and follow-up prevented delay in execution of projects. Though I can’t claim 100% success, I was able to reduce the complaints on corruption at corporation office,” said Prasanth, who will submit his resignation to corporation secretary on Saturday.
Prasanth also spoke about the need for new mode of election campaign. “During the campaign, people complained to me about flex menace and use of loud speakers. Flex boards were placed for my campaign at Vattiyoorkavu, though I am against it. Also, many files get delayed as many working days are lost due to election. We need new mode of campaign. I hope all political parties will take initiative in this regard,” he said.