KOCHI: Bringing relief to commuters in the Kochi-Vypeen sector, the owner of the boat 'Pappy' decided to restart service in the sector from coming Sunday after the Kochi Corporation decided to avoid the middleman in the deal. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting convened by the Assistant Commissioner of Police Vijayan S and attended by Corporation Councillor Shiny Mathew and owner of the boat Alappuzha native Babu Varghese, among others, on Thursday. Shiny Mathew was deputed by Mayor to sort out the issue.
The ACP promised all security for the smooth operation of the boat after the boat owner said that he faced difficulties for it. "The Corporation Secretary will issue orders terminating the contract with the contractor and middleman George Manoj after it was found that he was defaulting on payment to the boat owner," said Shiny Mathew. The owner grounded the boat since March 7 due to this.
Though the boat belonged to Babu Varghese, the contract was between the Corporation and Manoj who was an intermediary in roping in the boat from Alapuzha, post the Fort Kochi boat accident in August 2015. Varghese received payment from Corporation through Manoj. Babu Varghese told DC on Thursday that he was yet to receive Rs 6.60 lakh from Manoj and four cheques Manoj had given to him have bounced. "It was decided at the meeting that legal remedy should be sought by Babu for securing the outstanding amount from Manoj and from now on Corporation will directly deal with Babu," said Shiny Mathew.
"I am ready to take the responsibility of running the boat by undertaking its repairs and paying the staff provided adequate security and timely payment are done," said Babu. Interestingly the agreement the Corporation had with Manoj specified that that he would provide Babu with Rs 2.25 lakh per month for operating the boat while Manoj himself received Rs 5.75 lakh from the Corporation. This agreement was struck during the tenure of Tony Chammany as Mayor.
