A fresh controversy is brewing in the Kochi Corporation over the establishment of green toilets in the city.

The
LDF councillors in the Finance Standing committee have recorded their
dissent over the release of funds for setting up three units in the
city. The corporation had already established seven such units following
criticism that it had failed to provide the public utility service in a
city like Kochi where large number of people flock every day.

The
absence of public toilets for women in the city too had put the
corporation in a tight spot. The original proposal was to set up 10 such
units in the city on pay-and-use mode.

The Forest
Industries Travancore Limited, a public sector company, was the only
agency to respond to the tenders and the work was allotted to them for
Rs.7.91 lakh a unit. The company had also established units at
Kacheripady, Town Hall, and Fort Kochi. It had also won orders for
setting up the unit at Palarivattom, Vyttila and Ernakulam Market.

As
the request for the release of funds reached the Finance Standing
Committee, the LDF members M. Anilkumar, Sojan Antony and P.S. Rajam
recorded their dissent in releasing the funds to the company. In
bio-toilets, the waste is broken down into odourless gas and water. The
compact toilet is considered ideal for city centres.

According
to Mr. Anilkumar, the work was awarded to the firm without inviting
tenders. The unilateral decision to allot the work to the public sector
company without inviting tenders denied the corporation the opportunity
to check whether the facility could be available at a competitive rate.

Moreover,
the corporation lost the chance to find out whether any better
technology was available in the market, he said. The LDF also recorded
its resentment against the manner in which the work was awarded by the
Kochi Corporation. Invoking the powers to give anticipatory clearance,
the Mayor unilaterally cleared the project without permitting the
committees concerned to discuss the project.

“The
Mayor should sparingly exercise his right to give clearance for projects
anticipating the permission of the council and allow the committees to
take decision in a democratic manner,” he said.

At
the same time, Soumini Jain, the chairperson of the Works Standing
Committee of the corporation, said the opposition of the LDF councillors
to the project, which is beneficial to the general public, was
meaningless.

The opposition councillors who were now
criticising the corporation for establishing the toilets were up in arms
in the council one year ago against the delay in setting up the
facility. The previous LDF council could not establish even one such
unit in the city. The LDF should support the civic administration for
setting up such public utility facilities in the city, she said.