KOCHI: As the flames at the Brahmapuram dump yard refuse to die down even over a week after they broke out, resentment has started flaring within the CPM, with a section in the ruling party baying for the blood of Kochi Mayor M Anilkumar. It is learnt that a letter against the mayor has gone to the party state secretariat from the Ernakulam district committee.
Meanwhile, MLA P V Sreenijin has demanded that the state government take over the waste treatment plant from the city corporation, which has failed to handle the enormous mounds of waste at the site. Brahmapuram falls under Kunnathunadu, Sreenijin’s assembly constituency. He is also an area committee member of the CPM.
“Kochi corporation has proved that it alone cannot handle the plant at Brahmapuram,” Sreenijin told TNIE. When the plant was set up in 2008, Brahmapuram was a remote area, he said. “Now, nearly 65,000 people work at Infopark, which lies close to the waste yard. There is an international school, and the entire area is a big township. The state government should use this fire as an opportunity to establish a modern waste plant in Brahmapuram, on the line of the one in Indore,” he said.
Sources in CPM said in case Anilkumar is forced to step down, three councillors are in contention for the mayoral office. They are V A Srijith, a member of the education standing committee, P R Ranish, chairman of the development standing committee, and Benedict (Benny) Fernandez, a member of the finance standing committee.
Change of guard won’t help CPM
A source said the Latin Catholic Church is lobbying for Benny, who is a third-time member of the council. “If Benny is chosen to succeed Anilkumar, it would silence the critics that West Kochi is ignored in the council,” said the source. Benny is a CPM councillor from Fort Kochi’s Veli. This will also help CPM win the backing of the crucial Latin Catholic community in Ernakulam.
However, top CPM sources said Anilkumar won’t be replaced soon as it would send a signal that the mayor has bungled in handling the Brahmapuram fire, which continued to emanate toxic fumes on the eighth day on Thursday.
“To be fair to the mayor, the entire party machinery in Ernakulam was busy with (CPM state secretary) Govindan Master’s ‘Janakeeya Prathirodha Jatha’, which was in the district from March 6 to 8. And, no one thought that the fire would escalate into a big crisis,” said a source, adding that for multiple reasons the party would not consider replacing Anilkumar as mayor at the moment.
A change of guard would not help the party as the LDF is ruling the council with a thin margin. LDF has 34 members and UDF 32 in the council. BJP has 5 members and the remaining three are independents.
A CPM MLA in the district, who wished not to be named, said there was little the mayor could do individually. “The Brahmapuram waste issue did not pop up recently. Its origins can be traced back at least a decade. Instead of looking for scapegoats, what’s needed is a concrete long-term solution,” the MLA said.