KOCHI: Putting pressure on the state government which is going ahead with its plan to demolish the four apartment complexes at Maradu, an emergency council meeting of Maradu municipality held here on Thursday turned down the proposal to approve the two short-listed companies - Mumbai-based Edifice Engineering and Chennai-based Vijay Steels and Explosives - for carrying out the demolition.
The council denied the approval for the two firms saying Sub Collector Snehil Kumar Singh, who is in charge of the demolition of apartments, ‘insulted’ the council. This is the second time the council is rejecting the decision taken by the technical committee to appoint the two companies to carry out demolition. Last Saturday, the council had denied the nod for the two companies saying the proposal was not included in the council’s agenda.
Speaking to TNIE, T H Nadeera, chairperson of Maradu municipality, said the first emergency council meeting held last Saturday was to clear the apprehension of councillors regarding the demolition. “The proposal submitted by the sub-collector was denied on Saturday due to a technicality involved in including the proposal on the agenda. But the sub-collector on the same day wrote a letter to the state government to ratify and sanction the decision taken by the technical committee.. We only came to know about the letter when the secretary mentioned about it in the council,” she said.
If the council’s decision was not necessary, she asked why did the sub-collector ask for the convening of the emergency meeting on Thursday. “If he had informed us about his letter to the state government, we might not have called the meeting. He has insulted the council by taking a unilateral decision,” said Nadeera.
The councillors from both the ruling and opposition parties also lashed out at the sub-collector saying that the Maradu municipality will not take any responsibility on the demolition of buildings. However, an officer associated with the sub-collector said the prime duty of the government is to implement the SC order. “ The protest and the allegation are part of a political game,” said the officer.