THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City Corporation has expressed solidarity with the many big and small agitations happening across the state over the Mullaperiyar issue, raising the slogan ‘Safety for Kerala, water for Tamil Nadu’. In an official resolution, Mayor K Chandrika said that the arrogant stand of the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu was not acceptable since the state and lakhs of people have been living in fear following the rise of water-level in the dam and the continuous tremors that hit the area last week.The Council stood in silence, holding hands, expressing empathy with the people living near the dam.EMS Housing SchemeA pandemonium witnessed by the Council on Tuesday was over the EMS Housing Scheme. The discussions revealed the confusions prevailing over the scheme in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.While Deputy Mayor G Happykumar said that there were no takers for the scheme as the beneficiary amount of Rs 75,000 was a paltry sum, the Mayor said that 37 houses have been completed and 256 people have been allotted various instalments.The UDF member in the District Planning Committee (DPC), Sini, said that the DPC meeting held on Tuesday could have approved the list of beneficiaries had the Works Standing Committee submitted the list compiled and approved by the Council before the DPC. To this, LDF Chairpersons Padmakumar and Palayam Rajan said that the UDF members were speaking without studying the issue.They said that a list was ready with the Council, but it needed to be updated, which was why it was not handed over to the DPC. "When we call up the beneficiaries to collect their instalments, many are not responding. So, we have asked the councillors to give a list of beneficiaries which has been approved by the ward committees. This has to be compiled now and it would take some more days,’’ Padmakumar said.However, UDF members said that the EMS Housing Scheme was an utter failure in the city, while it was able to give houses to many in the panchayat areas. To this, Chandrika said that the Corporation had a similar project under BSUP which allots more money and under which many houses have been given, probably why the EMS Scheme received a cold shoulder.
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