Thrissur: The Thrissur Corporation council meet on Thursday witnessed heated arguments between the opposition leader and Health standing committee members over the issue of health officials demanding a bribe, free food and liquor from hotels and allegedly conducting raids and seizing food items from hotels that refused to meet the demands of the health officials. Opposition leader M K Mukundan said in the council that the standing committee and the team of officials had become a caucus to collect bribes from the hotel owners.
Casino Hotel officials on Wednesday came out in the open alleging that Health Inspector of the Corporation P Sivan had demanded free food and 10 beer bottles from the hotel and had sent his driver, Aneesh, who worked on daily wages for the Corporation, to collect the items from the hotel. The hotel had also released the CCTV footage of the driver collecting the beer and food parcels from the reception of the hotel. The hotel owners claimed that as there was a shortage of two bottles of beer sent to the official, he threatened them and raided the hotel as a part of the routine raids held before Thrissur Pooram.
Health standing committee chairperson M L Rosy threatened to stage a sit-in protest in the well of the house unless the opposition leader withdrew his allegations against the committee. The Additional secretary of the Corporation would be inquiring into the allegations of the Casino Hotel owners, Mayor Ajitha Jayarajan informed the council during the meet. The civic body on Wednesday had suspended P Sivan and dismissed his driver from the job on the basis of the allegations against them.
