Kerala - Kozhikode   

Plea to reconsider move to shift KURDC office

Special Correspondent

Tax Payers Forum questions the heavy expenditure involved

KOZHIKODE: The Tax Payers Forum of Kozhikode has urged the Government to reconsider its decision to shift the head office of the Kerala Urban and Rural Development Corporation (KURDC) from its own building in Kozhikode to a rented premises in Thiruvananthapuram.

"How will the Government justify the heavy expenditure involved in paying rent for the new building," P.T.S. Unni, secretary of the Tax Payers Forum, an association formed by a group of tax payers in Kozhikode, asked.

He said it was against public interest to waste funds by housing the head office of the corporation in rented premises when it had its own building.

The questions about the financial propriety of the LDF Government's move are being raised amid protests against shifting the office voiced by the Kozhikode Corporation Council and the Kozhikode District Panchayat, which are dominated by the LDF, as well as merchants' organisations like the Malabar Chamber of Commerce and the Calicut Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Mayor M. Bhaskaran also objected to the move in a letter to Minister for Local Administration Paloli Mohammed Kutty in which he said it was an act of cruelty to the people of Malabar in general and the city in particular.

The Tax Payers Forum expressed solidarity with the demand to restore the KURDC head office back to Kozhikode.

The KURDC head office was situated in Kozhikode ever since the corporation was formed 37 years ago. It was during the rule of the LDF Government in 1998 that a five-storeyed building was constructed here to house the office. Organisations opposing the Government move said it would deprive Kozhikode of an important Government office. Kozhikode was denied this privilege by shifting the KURDC head office to Thiruvananthapuram.

Critics of the Government decision disputed the contention that the move was for restructuring the organisation on the model of a similar organisation in Tamil Nadu.

The secretary of the forum warned that the move would be seen as a retrograde step by the LDF Government which had been taking initiatives for decentralisation of administration.

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