At a time when Tripunithura municipality is going to release the
annual budget, the residents have demanded the authorities to come up
with a solution to complete the Town Hall project which has been delayed
for 15 years.

As per the project, the Town Hall will be set up on
the proposed one-and-a-half acres of land at Kannankulangara. The
residents also said that they would conduct various protests under the
banner of Janakeeya Samithi if the project did not materialise this year
itself.

“Though the project reached nowhere, an amount of `8 lakh
has been spent for the project. Only a couple of pillars was built in
the proposed area. We are demanding a proper inquiry regarding the money
spent to the project,” Janakeeya Samithi Member V Raman said.

He also also said that they are organising the protests because they have lost faith in the political parties.

“After
introducing the proposal in 1998, the Communist party and the Congress
party have assumed power in the state. Both of them failed to complete
the project,” he said.

A former municipal councilor and also a
member of the Samithi told ‘City Express’ that the project has hit a
roadblock at its very  earlier stage. “The project was entrusted to a
private company by the then municipal council. The private company had
started the construction work  but they withdrew from the project after
constructing some pillars.

The company claimed that the project
cannot be completed with the allotted fund of `8 lakh. Later, when the
municipality tried to restart the project, the move had been objected by
the local auditors and asked them to submit the details of fund spent
to the project. The issue still remains unsloved which pulled out the
muncipal authorites from implementing the project,” he said.

Meanwhile, the municipal authorities said that  all the issues related to the project have been cleared.

“The
2013 annual budget will allocate sufficient fund to the project. Also
the project will be completed in a time bound manner,” the authorities
said.