The Hindu 22.11.2013
One treatment plant, two inaugural functions
S.R. Praveen
The Muttathara sewage treatment plant will have two
inaugural functions, one by the Corporation and another by the State
government.
Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali
had, on Tuesday, announced that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will
inaugurate the plant on November 27. But the Corporation authorities
seem to have stolen a march on him by announcing their own inaugural
function to be presided over by Mayor K. Chandrika on November 25, in
protest against the ‘one-sided decision making’ by the Minister.
In
a press conference here on Thursday, the Mayor, flanked by standing
committee chairpersons, said the Ministers or representatives of the
State government, who never even visited the plant during the
construction phase, were now trying to claim credit for it through other
means.
‘Dream project’
“The
Muttathara plant is a dream project for the Corporation. Right from the
initial stage, during the preparation of the City Development Plan in
2006, to the submission of project proposal to the Centre and to the
completion of construction activities, it was the Corporation
authorities who toiled for this. The present and previous governing
bodies called a total of 51 meetings to discuss various phases of its
implementation. We also took up the tough task of taking the local
people into confidence by formulating a separate project for roads and
an anganwadi in the area. No Minister visited the plant. The State
government did not take any steps to speed up the construction either,”
Ms. Chandrika said.
She said that Mr. Ali never
consulted the Corporation before going ahead and announcing the
inauguration plans. Some more work had to be finished before the
inauguration but the Minister’s announcement had scuttled those plans.
The move had undermined the authority and independence of local bodies,
she said.
The Corporation authorities had registered
their protest at a meeting of the organising committee called by the
Minister on Wednesday. Mr. Ali had said that everyone was invited and
that the ruling party at the Corporation could be raising this because
Mr. Chandy was inaugurating the function.
However,
Mr. Ali came out with a new line of defence on Thursday in which he said
that the inauguration was planned on November 27 as the bank guarantee
with the private company that had the responsibility of the plant
construction was set to expire on that day. Since the agreement was to
commission the plant before November 27, he took the decision to
inaugurate it on that day to avoid further complications in running the
plant. “I had sent an invitation on November 13 to the Mayor, MLAs, and
others asking them to participate in the organising committee meeting on
November 20. Since similar plants were being planned in Kollam, Kochi,
and Kozhikode, it was important that the achievements of this plant
received wide publicity,” he said.
Bharatiya Janata Party councillors accused Mr. Ali of planning the function with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Corporation plans function on November 25, two days ahead of the date announced by Manjalamkuzhi Ali.
