THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All political parties continued to fish in troubled waters over the master plan on Tuesday. Following Mayor VK Prasanth’s protest, the Local Self Government secretary declared that status quo would be maintained in the draft master plan.
A gherao was staged by councillors under Mayor V. K. Prasanth in front of the Chief Minister’s office demanding withdrawal of an obscure government order that ratified building construction as per the master plan.
Town planning had recently sent a revised master plan following Corporation disagreement over the old one. However, there is no mention of which of the two proposed master plans will be considered.
In any case CPM, BJP and local Congress MLA MA Vahid want the master plan to be redone avoiding the need for acquisitions and eviction. However, all the three continued trading allegations against each other.
A few CPM leaders alleged that the Congress was attempting to push an anti-people master plan to deliberately prove that it was pro-development. The Mayor's office maintained that “there is a mystery in the motives of the government on the master plan”.
