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Councillors against giving `hasty' nod for projects

Staff Reporter

Corporation effort to prevent funds from lapsing

KOCHI: Efforts by the Corporation to approve projects in a hasty manner to prevent funds from lapsing when the financial year ends, led to much debate at the Council meeting on Saturday.

Issues like ratifying the compromise agreement reached between the Corporation and Ambadi Krishna Menon on acquisition of land for solid waste processing plant at Cheranalloor and that of returning additional amount used by the Corporation from the general purpose grant given by the Government could not be approved, as councillors demanded more time to discuss projects. It was decided to refer the issue of remitting Rs.1.29 crores to the Government to the finance committee.

Another issue that led to much debate was payment to Kudumbasree units for preparing the voters' list for the local body elections in 2005. Initiating the discussion, Shyamala S. Prabhu said that the work was not properly done and there were many glaring mistakes in the list.

V.J. Hycinth urged that the Election Commission be communicated through a resolution not to enter into agreements with agencies for assignments like this.

T.J. Vinod said that all the three returning officers complained about flaws in the list. The Council decided to sanction the amount after Mayor Mercy Williams agreed that there were lapses on the part of the Corporation in properly supervising the work.

The Councillors protested against the proposal to allot Rs.15,500 to the contractor who undertook the work of the electric crematorium at Ravipuram. Councillors N. Venugopal, T.K. Padmanabhan and K.V.P. Krishnakumar protested citing that the crematorium had been remaining dysfunctional for the last one year.

A proposal to include the former mayor C.M. Dinesh Mani and N.P. Dominic as public men on the committee looking into the routine functioning of the Employment Guidance and Counselling Centre and to include Chandramohan Kumar as coordinator was not approved.

Opposition leader A.B. Sabu, N. Venugopal, T.J. Vinod, V.J. Hycinth, M. Anilkumar, K.J. Dineshan and K.V.P. Krishnakumar participated in the discussions.

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