Corporate

The Kozhikode Corporation Council meeting on Tuesday turned into a series of dramatic events as the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started a protest in the council hall, demanding the suspension of Corporation Secretary K.U. Bini to aid a fair investigation into the Sanchaya scam.

Mayor Beena Philip denied permission for an adjournment motion proposed by UDF parliamentary party leader K.C. Shobhita on the issue. The Mayor said there was no evidence against the Secretary, and the UDF’s allegations and demands were purely based on suspicion and hence could not be heeded. She also offered support to the Secretary, who, she claimed, had done everything in her power at the right time.

Amid the Mayor’s clarification, the UDF and BJP councillors assembled before the Mayor’s dais holding placards and banners and raising slogans. The BJP demanded an end to the “parallel Corporation administration”, in which, allegedly, middlemen and a few employees played a key role.

However, the Mayor wound up the council meeting quickly, passing all items on the agenda in a minute, which irked the protesting councillors further. They tried to snatch the agenda from the Mayor’s hands, and she was protected by Left Democratic Front (LDF) councillors. As matters started taking a violent turn, LDF councillors started raising counter-slogans, which led to a minor scuffle between LDF and UDF councillors. The LDF alleged that a UDF-BJP nexus was trying to sabotage the investigation into the scam.

Meanwhile, UDF and BJP councillors started protesting inside the Mayor’s chamber, while LDF councillors formed a barricade protecting the Mayor and Deputy Mayor as they entered the chamber.

The police removed a few Indian Union Muslim League workers from the spot for allegedly instigating violence. The protestors destroyed the nameplates of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor in front of their chambers as well as some microphones in the council hall.

The protestors staged a sit-in in front of the Mayor’s chamber while the Mayor was escorted out with the help of the police. The sit-in moved to the Secretary’s chamber later. The UDF claimed that it was just a “token protest”, and that a “mega protest” would be held on June 30 at the Corporation office’s lobby.

BJP District President V.K. Sajeevan flayed the Corporation’s attempt to frame BJP councillors in fake cases for protesting against the corruption in the civic body. The party is observing Wednesday as a protest day and will conduct a march to the Corporation office at 10 a.m.

Anti-STP protestors

Meanwhile, a few representatives of the anti-sewage treatment plant protest committee from Avikkal Thodu were blocked by the police outside the Corporation office gate, where they held a meeting, claiming that theirs was a fight for survival. They denounced the Mayor’s recent comment in an interview that they were against development, and that they were an ignorant lot. The construction of the STP has begun at Avikkal Thodu under heavy police protection. The Corporation office too was under police protection with the recent protests against the STP turning violent.

The Coimbatore Corporation has planned to procure 200 customised mini trucks for garbage collection across the city.

Corporation Commissioner M. Prathap said that the trucks will be purchased in two phases. In the first phase, the civic body has already placed the purchase orders to procure 105 mini trucks and is expected to be delivered soon.

In phase two, 95 more mini trucks will be procured for the purpose of garbage collection and transport. The Commissioner also said that all the mini trucks would be customised based on the corporation requirements.

“Every truck will be partitioned into three in order to segregate the domestic garbage collected door-to-door, at the source itself as biodegradable, non-biodegradable and plastic waste,” added Mr. Prathap.

The source segregated domestic garbage will be transported using the mini trucks to the micro composting centres across the city. The Commissioner said that out of the 36 micro composting centres in the city, some of them are defunct due to man power shortage and problems in the machineries.

The civic body is taking initiatives to operate all the composting centres in their full capacity and also looking for the participation of non-governmental organisations in revamping the centres, he added.

The corporation also plans to get 20 trucks on a rental basis to use at the places where there is high population density. Nearly 380 vehicles owned by the corporation and 45 rental vehicles are already in use for garbage collection and transportation of waste across all the five zones in the city.

The Coimbatore Corporation council meeting held on Thursday saw councillors vociferously expressing the problems in their wards.

Mayor Kalpana Anandakumar presided over the meeting. As many as 33 resolutions were taken into consideration, of which 32 got the approval of the council. Deputy Mayor R. Vetri Selvan introduced the first resolution to install a statue of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in Kuniyamuthur. The resolution was passed unanimously by the members of the council.

The resolution to collect deposit amount for underground drainage (UGD) in instalments based on the property tax assessment failed to get the council approval as the councillors argued that the amount was exorbitant and demanded to reduce it.

The council passed a resolution to recruit 180 more staff to facilitate the administration. This included three deputy commissioners and an assistant commissioner along with various postings in Health, Town Planning, and Administration departments. Corporation Deputy Commissioner M. Sharmila said the resolution would be forwarded to the State government through the Director of Municipal Administration to get the approval.

S. Meena Logu, Central Zone Chairman, said public toilets across the city had not been maintained well. She also urged the Corporation to do away with the old tenders and suggested for calling fresh tenders to maintain the toilets. “Through CSR funds, the Corporation should facilitate interested companies for infrastructure development and maintenance of Corporation schools,” she added.

“The water pipelines installed during the erstwhile AIADMK regime is a scam,” said R. Udhayakumar, ward 98 councillor. He also added that the pipeline laid at ₹416 crore through Pillayarpalayam to supply water to Kurichi-Kuniyamuthur areas was causing huge financial burden.

CPI(M)‘s V. Ramamoorthy said the water projects looked good on paper, but there were a lot of execution bottlenecks. Instead of directly connecting the water pipelines through a short route to a particular area, most of the projects were designed in such a way that it went around the maximum distance, he added.

Before the start of the council meeting, three councillors from All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) raised slogans against the Mayor. They staged a demonstration on the Town Hall premises. They questioned the way the Corporation funds were spent to furnish the offices of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Zonal Chairpersons. AIADMK floor leader Prabhakaran also alleged that ₹1 crore was spent to paint the Mayor’s house.

Ten months after the Corporation began works to establish a temporary bus stand at Solar Punjai Lakkapuram along Karur Bypass Road, the project has, so far, cost ₹7.67 crore for the civic body while the bus stand is expected to be functional in three months.

Under the Smart Cities project, the civic body began development works at the existing bus terminus on Mettur Road in September 2021 and the work is expected to be completed in 24 months. To facilitate smooth execution of work, the civic body planned to establish a bus stand for south-bound districts including Karur, Tiruchi, Madurai and Tirunelveli.

Corporation officials said tar-topping the surface cost ₹3.30 crore while formation of road in the bus stand cost another ₹3.37 crore. Likewise, establishing a platform cost ₹97 lakh and construction of toilets, transport office, police station, office room and water supply arrangements would cost ₹97 lakh. “The project cost is expected to be around ₹8 crore,” said the officials.

Corporation Commissioner K. Sivakumar told The Hindu work was on to establish bus shelters, toilets and storm water drainage after which provision for drinking water would be made. Given the current pace of work, the project was expected to be completed in two to three months. On the proposal to establish a permanent bus stand near the temporary bus stand at ₹63.50 crore, he said tender documents were received and were under evaluation. “Work order for establishing a permanent bus stand for south-bound districts will be issued in two weeks,” he added.

The Coimbatore Corporation plans to privatise domestic garbage collection in the central zone areas, which includes Ukkadam and Gandhipuram.

Official sources said door-to-door garbage collection, transportation and waste segregation in the central zone that has 20 wards will be taken up by private companies, if the proposal is implemented. A resolution to privatise garbage collection in the zone as a pilot project was passed in the council meeting that was held last month.

S. Meena Logu, zonal chairman, said the zone was chosen for the pilot project and based on the response, the privatisation could be expanded to all the zones. She also said, “this model was successful in Greater Chennai Corporation where garbage collection in seven zones was privatised.”

Ms. Logu said that the conservancy workers who are employed as permanent staff would be transferred to the adjacent zones. Further, the Corporation would negotiate with the private company that would be identified for the project to retain the contractual sanitary workers who are already working in the zone. The zone currently had nearly 900 permanent workers and around 600 contract workers. A total of 77 vehicles were involved in garbage collection in the zone.

A few organisations, including Coimbatore Labour Union of the All India Trade Union Congress and the Tamil Nadu Annal Ambedkar Scavengers General Employees Union (TNAASGE), staged a protest in front of Coimbatore South Taluk office on Wednesday against privatisation of garbage collection in the city.

They alleged that the contractual sanitary workers in the central zone would  lose their job, if the garbage collection was given to a private company. Era. Tamilnadu Selvam, general secretary of TNAASGE said, “nearly 3,600 sanitary workers are employed as contractual labourers for the past 12 years, whose regularisation has not been confirmed yet.”

He also alleged that there was no transparency and accountability in the Provident Fund (PF) contributions of the employees and the employer. During the protest, the labour union members raised slogans to maintain the status quo and give up the proposal to privatise garbage collection.

Countering the allegations, Corporation Deputy Commissioner M. Sharmila said the civic body had got the provident fund details of 1,600 employees and physical cards were distributed. The cards with PF numbers of the remaining 1,800 employees would be distributed soon, she added.