KOCHI: The Kochi Corporation Council meeting on Wednesday witnessed unruly scenes, when opposition councillors staged a walkout, alleging that the civic body had shown ‘favouritism’ by allowing Reliance Jio Infocom Limited (RJIL) to dig up roads and lay cables for the second time without the council’s permission.
The controversy kick-started over the file that permitted RJIL to go ahead with the move. Opposition leader K J Antony brought up the matter and said the move had caused a huge loss to the civic body.
“The Mayor was keen on passing the application Jio submitted. The council had no idea about it. A Vigilance inquiry about RJIL’s activity is under way. How, then, was it permitted to dig up roads again?” wondered Antony, adding that the corporation should table the files before the council in this regard.
Opposition councillor V P Chandran, too, was vocal in his criticism. Quoting the Local Audit Report, he said, “The agreement between the Corporation and RJIL stipulated that the latter had to remit Rs 31 crore for cutting 107.184 km of roads in the city. But, it claimed that it could dig up 8.64 km and remitted only Rs 1.25 crore, instead of the actual Rs 2.75 crore, including the land and service tax. It violated the agreement. Still, it was permitted again,” he said.
Matters turned worse when Mayor Soumini Jain refused to entertain the opposition’s demand of an immediate reply, saying she would do so after the general discussions. The intervention by Standing Committee chairpersons of the UDF, including A B Sabu and K V P Krishnakumar, to defend Jain added fuel to the fire.
Deputy Mayor T J Vinod said they were ready to face any inquiry and added that the opposition was free to inspect the files, if it had any doubts. After the discussions, Jain tried to answer their queries. However, an enraged opposition began shouting and disrupted council proceedings. Later, Jain left the hall after announcing the agendas as passed.