The opposition in the Kochi Corporation has come up with new allegations against the ruling members, in connection with the issuance of a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the Lulu Group for the construction of a bridge across Edappally canal.
According to members of the opposition, Lulu Group submitted an application for the NOC after the construction of the bridge. They also did not follow the recommendations mandatory for its construction. The opposition alleged that the authorities issued the NOC sidelining the Council’s decision. According to the opposition councillor and Town Planning Standing Committee member C A Shakkeer, the application for the NOC was submitted by the Lulu Group on May 16, 2011.
“The Town Planning Standing Committee meeting considered the application and decided to conduct a site inspection. But during the inspection, we found that the construction of the bridge was completed. Lulu representatives claimed that they had already obtained NOC from the Irrigation Department and Kalamassery Municipality and were not aware of the fact that they needed an NOC from the Corporation,” he said.
Shakkeer said that the Town Planning Committee members told officials of Lulu that they will take a final decision only after conducting further discussions.
Accordingly, the Town Planning Committee had recommended the Council to consider issuing an NOC under certain conditions. “These included maintaining the width of the canal, maintaining a six-metre building line on the canal sides, constructing protection walls on both sides of the canal and cleaning the canal in the area. It was also decided that a fine would be imposed for not obtaining the NOC prior to the construction,” Shakkeer added.
The Town Planning Committee instructed the applicant to maintain the width of the canal from the NH culvert at Edappally to the new bridge. The Council meeting held on October 10, 2011 took a decision to issue the NOC, once the applicant was found to have followed the recommendations. “But without further inspections, the NOC was issued. We strongly suspect an unholy nexus,” alleged Shakkeer.
Meanwhile, Kochi Corporation secretary Ajit Patil said that a conditional NOC, based on the recommendations, was issued to the applicant. “The Irrigation Department had issued an NOC for the construction. Hence, as per the recommendations of the council, we too issued an NOC and levied a fine of `10,000 for not obtaining the certificate before the construction,” he said.
Town Planning Committee chairman and former mayor K J Sohan said the Corporation will soon inspect the site to see whether the recommendations were followed by the Lulu Group in regard to the construction of the bridge. Brushing aside the allegations, T P M Ibrahim Khan, counsel for the Lulu Group, said that they had followed all the mandatory recommendations stipulated by the Irrigation Dept and local bodies while constructing the bridge.
Resurvey to be completed soon
Kochi: The resurvey ordered by the district administration to find out alleged encroachment of land around Lulu Mall, Edappally, including Edappally canal, will be completed at the earliest, said District Collector P I Sheik Pareeth. “The proceedings are expected to be completed in two-three days. We have started verifying the documents related to the area. There will not be any further delay in completing the survey,” he said. Though the survey was scheduled to be conducted on Thursday, it was postponed for document verification. The Collector said no special team had been constituted for the survey work and Kannayanur tahsildar will carry out the survey.