Thiruvananthapuram corporation seeks more funds

Thiruvananthapuram: It had started raining in Thiruvananthapuram when the corporation council was discussing pre-monsoon cleaning related to dengue on Monday. The meeting concluded with Mayor V.K. Prasanth passing a resolution to seek more funds and a staff pattern that suits the 100-ward corporation. Officials say that the cleaning of dumps and drainages can still be done even if it is raining. At present, every ward is allotted Rs 35,000 for pre-monsoon cleaning, of which Rs 25,000 has been transferred to health inspectors, according to health standing committee chairperson K. Sreekumar.

The council decided to ask the government to raise the ceiling from Rs 35,000. Several councillors talked about the shortage of staff in the health wing. According to Sreekumar, three health inspector posts and 30 junior health inspector posts are vacant. He said that the corporation had written to the PSC in February, March, April and May for permission to fill the vacancies with daily wage workers. In his concluding remarks, the Mayor said that the state had sanctioned the appointments of 325 additional contingent workers on daily wages.

The council also decided to ask the government to provide more funds to minor irrigation and major irrigation departments which need to clean drainage canals in the city. They have been complaining of shortage of funds, according to town planning standing committee chairman R. Satheeshkumar. BJP's V.G. Girikumar talked about the paucity of equipment. The corporation does not have a grass cutting machine and of 16 fogging machines, 10 are defunct, he said.

Order has been placed for 20 fogging machines. Two fogging machines have arrived and seven will come in a day or two, he said. The Mayor said that the tender process for buying 25 pickup autos had been completed. BJP councillor M.R. Gopan accused the LDF of using political influence to appoint physically unfit people as sanitation workers. LDF councillors, including Palayam Rajan of Congress-S, objected, and the Mayor ruled that the remark needs to be removed from council minutes.

The BJP councillors were miffed that many did not get a chance to speak. When they protested, the Mayor said that the main leaders should have spoken less to allow other BJP councillors some time. Many had spoken for more than four minutes. The UDF councillors had pinned black badges on their dress as part of the statewide UDF protest against the centre's ban on the sale of cattle in the market for slaughter.

BJP calls all-night sit-in stir

BJP councillors have decided to carry out an all-night sit-in protest in the Corporation council hall on Monday, alleging that they were not given enough time during the Corporation council meeting. However, Mayor, in a press release late in the day, blamed that the BJP was only trying to divert the attention from the alleged corruption involving BJP councillor Simi Jyothish. It is alleged that Ms jyothish, as the appeal standing committee chairperson, had waived off Rs 4.92 crore in tax of a private firm. He added that party leaders should have kept their political speeches brief to allow more time for other councillors.