KOZHIKODE: The new corporation council that is scheduled to take the oath on Thursday has tough days ahead as the city has a number of teething problems requiring urgent attention.
The last council had failed to attend to various crucial issues and the present mayor in charge, collector N. Prasanth exposed their failures by bringing in power to the much-hyped Aanakkulam cultural centre after he took charge.
Parking in the city is a major issue to be tackled. The previous council had promised multi-level car parking zones, but it could not even move the file concerned in the last five years.
“There were many hollow promises. Still the people of Kozhikode have elected the LDF hoping for better performance. They are pinning their hopes on the new Mayor-designate, V.K.C. Mammad Koya,” Mr Nirmal Kumar, a city resident said.
The LDF councillors also admit that many things had gone wrong in the last five years. “We cannot afford to make such mistakes again this time. What we need is a Mayor who co-ordinates the works of all councillors and implements projects with a timeline. We have several projects that need urgent attention,” an LDF councillor told DC.
The flooding of arterial roads and key commercial areas in the city is another intractable problem. Several crores has gone down the drain due to unscientific project implementation.
The drainage construction at Mavoor Road, which the corporation had undertaken just months before the monsoon, has reached nowhere. The LDF councillor himself had led an agitation against the project after the residents raised an objection pointing out the impracticability of the project.
“Now they will complete it by constructing a drainage along Mavoor Road till Canoly. It was unscientific to construct it via Thiruthiyad,” former Thiruthiyad councillor O.M. Bharadwaj said.
Waste disposal, management of roadside hoardings, drainage network, road development and pursuing the corruption cases filed against the former deputy mayor are some of the other issues that await the new council’s attention.
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