THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A clash broke out between the ruling LDF councillors and opposition UDF councillors at Neyyatinkara during the presentation of the budget on Monday. A video of opposition leader Lalitha Teacher roughing up CPM councillor Murukan P went viral. The incident took place over the acquisition of private land to be added to the 4.2 acre Eerattinpuram tourism project. UDF council members claimed that the submerged property originally belonged to the municipality. A ruckus broke out as the ruling members earmarked Rs38.6 lakh for the purchase of the land in the budget and adjourned the council without discussing the issue. UDF councillor Praveen KL then went near the Chairperson’s table to protest. He was pushed aside by councillor Murugan P. Seeing this, Lalitha intervened and allegedly hit Murugan.
As per the ruling council members, a high court judgement upheld the ownership contention by a private individual over the land measuring around 70 cents. The acquisition was important for the project to continue. “We have a problem with the project’s transparency because the vice-chairperson K.K. Shibu was persuading us outside the council to agree to the project. The land belongs to the municipality and thrice the issue went to court. Twice we received a favourable judgement and the final judgement went against us because the municipality did not strongly contest our position,” said Ms Lalitha.
The UDF issued a dissent note on the issue during a council meeting last week.
“Strangely, when the minutes of that meeting came out, it falsely quoted that the UDF councillors approved paying the land price agreed to by the tehsildar. So we suspect foul play in the purchase and again issued a dissent note on Monday,” she said. Meanwhile, Neyyatinkara police said that they had received no complaint and hence did not register a case.
Civic body lost crores in corruption, says BJP
BJP levelled serious corruption allegations against the LDF, relying on the latest audit report, during Monday’s budget discussion. The Corporation had suffered losses to the tune of crores because of this, according to BJP’s V.G. Girkumar.
There were no proper accounts book showing expenditure and income of Santi Kavadam, he said. “Disciplinary action was taken against an official, who pointed out missing entries adding up to Rs 3 lakhs over three months,” he said. One of the projects mentioned in the report is the one in which a metering system was supposed to be introduced for city streetlights. Though the Corporation had deposited Rs 1.17 crore to KSEB, the project never took off, according to Girikumar.
The Corporation had to pay Rs 1.15 crores from its own funds, after failing to collect income tax from its employees, as per the report. The reply address from Deputy Mayor Rakhi Ravikumar is scheduled for Tuesday. The budget she presented received flak from members of the finance committee itself. UDF’s Stephy George, a finance committee member, said that none of the proposals she submitted were included. “I had proposed that a multilevel parking area be created above Pattom-Marappalam canal, a project similar to the Vanchiyoor canal. Unfortunately, it was completely ignored. I proposed a cycle pathway between MG College Ring Road and LIC lane. However the cycle pathway proposed now runs between Kowdiar and Vazhayila. The budget has been guided by political interests,” she said.
Many of the projects in the main budget speech were repeats of the previous budgets, according to BJP’s K Anilkumar. Housing project, multilevel parking and fresh-up centres were some of the examples he shared. “Slaughterhouse renovation was allocated Rs 25 cr in 2016-2017, Rs 15 cr in 2017-2018 and '10 crin this budget. Each time, the amount got reduced,” he said.
