KOCHI: Resentment is brewing on Maharaja’s campus over the delay in the State government keeping promises made while parting with 16.6 cents of its ground for the Kochi metro two years back.
They include a modern hockey turf and a new hostel apart from renovating the two existing ones.
College principal T. V. Francy said the government had not acted so far despite him taking up the issue with officials, ministers and even the chief minister’s office.
“Since the college belonged to the government, the land was not acquired but transferred to Metro. I was not the principal then,” he said.
“I understand that the district collector sent a proposal for the Rs 8.8-crore project after it was approved at a meeting attended by the chief minister. I took up the issue with minister K. Babu. The Old Students Association also intervened but no action has been taken”.
SFI leader Vysakh Mohan said that the governing council of Maharaja’s College, filled with people owing allegiance to UDF, were not raising the issue with the government.
“The amount has to be deposited in the account of the College Development Council but the administrative sanction certificate for the same has not been issued for that,” he said.
Interestingly, both KMRL and the district administration officials expressed ignorance about any such promise while throwing the ball in each other’s court.
“The district administration conducted land acquisition for metro and we don’t have any knowledge about such a promise,” said an official at the Kochi Metro Rail Limited.
Deputy collector in charge of Kochi Metro land acquisition P. V. Shobhana Kumari said that since it was government land, the administration did not resort to land acquisition and the land was transferred to KMRL, which alone knows details of any promise.
