KOCHI: It's been nearly a week since Vice President Venkaiah Naidu kicked off the golden jubilee celebrations of the Kochi Corporation, but there have been no further activities till date.In fact, the civic body had announced earlier it is planning a series of seminars on the future of the metro city, the ways to improve its infrastructure and a mega concluding ceremony to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
However, the Corporation is clueless when such events will be held. It seems I 66 lakh set aside for the much-hyped golden jubilee celebrations have gone down the drain. Though the Corporation planned to conduct a three-day seminar on the subject 'Future of Kochi' and a concluding ceremony, no discussion has taken place even a week after the official inauguration which was conducted after spending around I 20 lakh.
"As per the earlier meeting with the Mayor and the standing committee chairpersons I was asked to take care of seminars," Poornima Narayan, Education Standing Committee chairperson of the Corporation, told Express. "Based on that I have chalked out a four-day seminar and its budget plan. Though I have submitted this before the Mayor, no discussion has been initiated by the Mayor after the inauguration. Only a dance programme and a music band performance were carried out as a part of the celebrations. We are unaware of any further celebration plans."
The Kochi Corporation has set aside a total budget of Rs 66 lakh for conducting the celebration drawing flak from the opposition councillors. They alleged vast financial irregularities have occurred from the ruling front's side in organising the grand function to mark the civic body's 50th anniversary. "Serious discussion had to be carried out before announcing such a celebration. A discussion on the past, present and future of Kochi needs to be carried out. But unfortunately, the Corporation has utterly failed to do it. How can the Mayor lead the city if they can't even organise a celebration properly?" said V P Chandran, Opposition councillor.
"Apart from discussing the programmes in the steering committee meetings, neither the Mayor nor the ruling councillors did anything to bring the matter before the council. If they did the same, the councillors too can contribute with their suggestions. But they themselves planned and ruined it as no celebration has happened even one week after its official inauguration. It is a shameful act and will certainly degrade the image of the civic body," Chandran said.
Opposition leader K J Antony said Corporation ruling councillors should bear the expense of conducting the programme as the state government will not give permission for such a huge amount. "Since the government hasn't given permission to conduct the event, it will be the sole responsibility of the Corporation to bear the liability," he said.
A B Sabu, a senior councillor of the ruling front, said the second phase of the celebration will begin by December first week. "For the concluding ceremony, the presence of the Chief Minister is important. Though we approached him for dates we couldn't make it out as he was busy with his other schedules. We hope he can come by the first week of December. So we are planning to conduct the event based on it. We have also planned to conduct a development seminar as part of the celebrations," said Sabu, who is the Welfare committee chairperson.
When contacted, Mayor Soumini Jain told Express the delay happened as she was down with a fever. "I was not well during these days. As per the earlier plan, we will conduct seminars and a concluding ceremony. Everything is going as per the plan and delay was not deliberate," she said.