KOCHI: The meeting of the corporation council held at the Ernakulam town hall on Friday turned out to be a stormy affair after the Opposition LDF launched a frontal assault on the ruling UDF for allegedly playing ‘hide and seek’ over the encroachment of 16 cents of prime real estate owned by the civic body at MG Road.
Raising the issue, Opposition leader K J Antony faulted the council for not taking steps to protect the land despite drawing its attention to the matter on numerous occasions. Following the sharp criticism from the Opposition, a team comprising Mayor Soumini Jain, deputy mayor and Leader of the Opposition decided to visit MG Road on Monday on a fact-finding mission. “Action will be taken against officials who fall short in this regard. The encroachers will be evacuated and a boundary wall will be constructed to protect the area,” said Jain.
Meanwhile, V P Chandran, secretary, LDF parliamentary party, pointed out that the `41 crore waste management project under the Swachh Bharat Mission’s project was lost due to the lackadaisical attitude on the part of the corporation. Benedict Fernandes alleged that despite the Kochi Smart City Mission Ltd allocating `21 crore for follow-up work on the Ray project, the Mayor failed to present the agenda before the council.