THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the government would consider trimming down the powers of panchayat and municipal secretaries. The Chief Minister was replying to the adjournment motion of Muslim League MLA K.M. Shaji in Assembly.
At the moment only the secretaries have powers in connection with building rules of local bodies. In case of any dispute over secretary’s decision, as per clause 509(6), an appeal can only be filed before the tribunal. The chairman or council has no power to hear the appeal.
The Kannur incident points to the existing problems related to getting permission for construction of buildings. The government is looking for remedial measures and that’s why the matter is being taken on priority, he added.
Mr Vijayan said at the moment the lone tribunal located in Thiruv-ananthapuram was overburdened. It takes six months to one year to settle the disputes. The government is examining the need for having two more tribunals in Kochi and Kozhikode to expedite the cases.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister remained silent on the role of P.K. Shyamala while launching a scathing attack on the municipal officials.
He slammed the UDF leaders for using Jay-arajan’s name against the CPM. Even earlier there were attempts to use certain idols agai-nst the CPM he said, indirectly referring to the time when the me-dia used veteran leader V.S. Achuthanandan against the party. “Such efforts had failed to destroy the CPM,” he said.
The Chief Minister reminded the Opposi-tion that Jayarjana was not in a position to even hold a pen with his hands. “We all eat with our hand but not Jayarajan. He was brutally attacked by the RSS being a senior CPM leader.
Mr Vijayan took strong exception to the manner in which the opposition leaders had dragged CPM central committee member M.V. Govindan’s name in the controversy. Can anyone say anything wrong against Govin-dan, he asked.
Reacting to Chief Minister’s charges, Ch-ennithala said the opposition had not made any remarks against the CPM leaders. He said the Opposition leaders had referred to Shay-amala as per the statement given by Sajan’s wife.
