The City Corporation is now on the path of saying ‘yes’ to the
Integrated Municipal Solid Waste-to-Energy plant proposed in Chalai. In
the council meeting held on Wednesday, Mayor K Chandrika said that after
bringing to the attention of the state government the detrimental
clauses, the agreement in this regard would be signed at the earliest.

Before
the council meeting, a note prepared out of the legal opinion received
from the standing counsel of the Corporation, Nandakumara Menon, was
presented. Though the ruling and opposition parties had sought the
removal of the legal tangles present in the agreement, all were of the
opinion that the agreement to find a solution to the mounting garbage
crisis of the city should be signed.

The council approved a
resolution to request the government to bring back former Health Officer
D Sreekumar, who was transferred to Thalassery municipality. When the
opposition UDF at first expressed its protest, later Maheswaran Nair of
the UDF said that the resolution has to be passed. In the municipal
service, when more than 20 vacancies of health officers are present,
only three are in  service.

Asok Kumar, BJP leader, said that
Sreekumar has to be brought back taking into account the serious health
situation prevailing in the city now.

The Corporation also decided
to write a letter to the government to include Deputy Mayor and Town
Planning Committee chairperson in the Special Town Planning Committee
formed to examine the suggestions on the draft master plan for the
capital for 2031. The Special Town Planning committee will have Mayor K
Chandrika as ex-officio chairperson. Retired chief town planner Kasturi
Rangan, architect Mahesh, BJP leader in the Corporation P Asok Kumar,
UDF leader Johnson Joseph and LDF leader V S Padmakumar are also members
of the committee.

Walkout in Council

The opposition UDF
staged a walkout at the beginning of the Council meeting in protest
against the Mayor not granting permission to present an adjournment
motion seeking police action against former registrar of Birth and Death
Section, Jayadevan Nair, accusing him of verbally abusing Kinavoor ward
councillor Sarasamma and trying to attack her.

The Mayor denied
permission as the officer is not in service at present and as the
incident had occurred outside the council. Following this, while the
Mayor was presenting the condolence resolution, the UDF councillors who
were present, led by leader Johnson Joseph, expressed their protest by
staging a walkout and returned to the meeting soon after.