KOCHI: The Opposition Left Democratic Front in the Kochi Corporation has decided to demand a special session of council to discuss the Smart City proposal in the wake of Ernakulam District Collector M G Rajamanickam making a facebook post castigating the council “for not addressing the real issues faced by the people”.
The collector has termed the new council as dormant and stated that the council has sidestepped issues requiring urgent remedial action such as waste management, K J Antony, opposition leader in the council said on Saturday.
“We demand an explanation from the Mayor. The concept plan of the Kochi Smart City project should be presented in the council. We are in dark about the project like the seven lakh citizens of Kochi,” he said.
“Both the Collector and the Mayor should have mutual respect for each other as the former is a government official and the latter elected by people”, said P Rajeev, CPM district secretary, in response to the tug of war between Collector and Mayor. The council should take the statement in a positive way, he added.
Corp heads run down Collector
The District Collector MG Rajamanickam should make comments in accordance with the dignity of his post, said TJ Vinod, deputy mayor and AB Sabu, corporation council welfare standing committee chairman said on Saturday.
In a hard hitting statement against the facebook post by the collector Vinod and Sabu said leveling charges against the council elected through a democratic process amounts to challenging democracy itself.
“The charges of inaction with regard to waste menace and against illegal constructions are not true. The Collector failed in his capacity as district executive magistrate to repair PWD roads,” they said.
The allegation that Kochi is covered with a mountain of waste is not in tune with reality. Kochi would not have been selected as the fourth amongst the Indian cities for handling the urban waste under the swacch bharat scheme if the charges leveled by the collector were true, they pointed out.
The allegation that the council had rejected the notice served by the collector against unauthorized buildings is contrary to the fact. “This is a matter to be discussed in the standing committee. Leveling allegations on such a matter raises doubts about intention of the collector”, they added.
The collector is responsible for repairing the broken footpaths on MG Road, Banerji Road and Park Avenue under the Public Works Department. “He is trying to hide the utter failure in this regard and trying to put the blame to the corporation council”, they said.
Congress leader and Greater Cochin Development Authority chairman N Venugopal however supported the right of the collector to make such comments. “There is nothing wrong in airing the personal views in social media. It is the trend nowadays”, he said.
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