Corporation Council sees healthy discussion

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UDF in the Corporation Council did a silent boycott of the proceedings on Tuesday in protest against the mode of functioning of the Corporation which completes its first anniversary this month. As soon as the Council met, the UDF members walked out leaving the Left amused. They sat at the entrance of the Corporation office, shouting slogans until the Council finished its proceedings.According to a statement issued by UDF leader Johnson Joseph, the Council is an utter failure as it completes one year. The road works have been stalled. When the State Government came to the rescue by undertaking the road works, the Council has been trying to politicise it. The Central funds for the various Central-assisted projects have not been spent. The five panchayats which were added to the Corporation are a suffering lot with any kind of development rejected to them, the UDF accused.However, the one good thing that happened owing to the boycott was that for the first time the Council witnessed healthy and active discussions. Even the Left people, when left to themselves, showed the courage to open up and discuss issues in an objective manner.The LDF and the BJP leaders raised many issues in the Council, where nearly half seats remained vacant. The councillors from the new wards, including Sreekariyam and Nettayam, pointed out the difficulties faced by the suburban areas in general. The cleaning programmes are in the dumps there, the zonal offices are in doldrums, road works stalled, they said.They discussed the way some people opted for residential occupation and then ran commercial establishments, draining the local body’s income source. The issue of Samagra Insurance Project, where the insurance company officials were playing hide-and-seek with the beneficiaries were brought to limelight by Welfare Standing Committee chairman Palayam Rajan.He said in a resolution that though the time had come for the renewal of cards, many had not received the cards even now. This is when the photo of the beneficiaries were taken and money received from them. This has made the cards useless for many beneficiaries, he said.When the Akshaya e-learning project and KSUDP’s market renovation project were read out in the Council, the councillors from the new wards protested against the exclusion of their respective wards from the lists. To the surprise of many, some of the LDF councillors seconded them.Healthy discussions took place in the case of pension distribution too where the Welfare Committee chairperson promised to issue identity cards for the rest of the pension beneficiaries too.