Kerala - Kochi   

Chaos marks council meeting

Staff Reporter

Opposition member stages dharna in front of Corporation office

KOCHI: Commotion marked the special council meeting of the Kochi Corporation, convened to discuss the draft suggestion of projects to be taken up under the Kerala Development Plan 2007-08, when the Opposition insisted on taking up for discussion the High Court observation on the failure of the civic body to clear garbage in the city.

Deputy Mayor C.K. Manisankar refused to take up the subject for discussion. When the discussion was disrupted, Mr. Manisankar declared the agenda as approved by the council and left the hall.

The Opposition member raised slogans and staged a dharna in front of the Corporation office. A.B. Sabu, Opposition leader, told the media that the High Court observation was a pointer to the failure of the present council. The LDF-led council resorted to face-saving exercises such as suspending the health officer instead of taking corrective measures. The public lost faith in the Corporation and approached the High Court and Ombudsman to seek solutions to the civic issues, Mr. Sabu said.

The Kerala Development Project needs to be finalised only by March 2008 and there was no hurry to convene a special council meeting for the purpose. The meeting was an attempt to divert attention from the observations of the court. The Opposition would make it clear to the District Planning Committee that it disapproved the chair’s decision to approve the agenda unilaterally, Mr. Sabu said.

Mr. Manisankar said that according to the Municipal Act, no subject other than those mentioned in the agenda could be taken up for discussions in the special council meeting. A separate meeting could have been convened had the Opposition demanded, but it did not raise any such demand.

The court observed that the garbage should be dumped on the plot at Brahmapuram where the proposed garbage disposal plant was coming up. This, the court said, had to be done without affecting the environment.

The Corporation counsel failed to convince the High Court about the status on garbage disposal and that garbage could not be dumped at the site without affecting the environment unless the waste treatment plant was set up.

Union Minister for Defence A.K. Antony failed to initiate steps to seek Naval cooperation to allow garbage to be dumped at Wellingdon Island. Although the Corporation stopped using the island to dump garbage, private parties continue to dump garbage there.

The Corporation would now dump garbage at Brahmapuram and file an affidavit on the status of the garbage disposal process on Monday, Mr. Manisankar said.

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