VACB’s ‘Operation Parpidam’ exposes widespread municipal corruption in Kerala’s construction sector
Kerala's Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched 'Operation Parpidam' to investigate widespread bribery and corruption in the state's municipal construction sector. The probe targets illegal building permits, zoning violations, and tax fraud involving officials and intermediaries.
Why it matters
Exposes systemic corruption that impacts public safety and housing affordability, highlighting government efforts to enforce building codes.
The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) in Kerala has unearthed a widespread bribery racket to expedite building permit applications, overlook zoning violations, facilitate false reporting of floor area ratio to defraud the government of tax revenue and regularise structurally compromised illegal constructions, thereby imperilling public safety.
Named ‘Operation Parpidam’, the agency’s Statewide inspections to expose systemic municipal corruption also detailed how local networks of corrupt officials and their agents have significantly escalated the cost of construction for ordinary families, a significant section of the population, who struggle to navigate the cumbersome building code and allied red-tape in their uphill and often cash-strapped effort to put an affordable roof over their heads.
Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau officials examine records as part of ‘Operation Parpidam’ at a municipality in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday (July 22, 2026) | Photo Credit: special arrangement
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