The nine-day-long stir staged by the UDF councillors of the City Corporation was called off after convening a special council meeting on Wednesday to discuss the slew of matters they had put forward. After hearing the demands of the councillors at the council meeting, an all-party meeting was convened that finalised the measures to be taken to sort out the issues raised by the councillors.
A majority of councillors had been vocal regarding the stalemate existing in waste management in their own wards, laxity in streetlight maintenance and corruption. UDF’s Maheswaran Nair alleged that high-rises and condos bribe to get building permit issued from the Corporation at the earliest, whereas it becomes a time-consuming process for others. He also alleged that some contractors take too many works under the City Corporation through ‘benamis’ and hence a majority are moving at a snail’s pace.
Tony Oliver presented the number of files taken by Vigilance from the Corporation main office and the zonal offices at Ulloor and Nemom to support the size of corruption taking place in the Corporation. Some councillors pointed out in the meeting that even if they marked places in their wards to set up biogas plants, nothing productive took place. Likewise, there was also a demand that not all wards are getting equal treatment in redressing the maintenance of streetlights.
In response, Mayor K Chandrika said Rs 50 lakh has been deposited with Clean Kerala Company towards waste management and she sought a collective effort of all councillors irrespective of politics to solve the issues.
All-party Meeting
In the all-party meeting chaired by the Mayor, it was decided to take immediate measures to solve the garbage menace in wards. A meeting of officials and contractors is to be convened on May 27 and 28 regarding maintenance of streetlights and another on May 26 towards making available potable water. Meetings of officers in the Corporation will be called to discuss the corruption charges raised by the opposition. UDF leader Johnson Joseph said that if effective measures are not taken after holding all these meetings, the party will open the second part of the stir, including a fast, after the Attipra bypoll.