A debate over the ‘voluminous’ concession agreement for the
integrated municipal solid waste-to-energy plant at Chalai took centre
stage in the Corporation Council meeting held here on Tuesday.

 UDF
councillor Mujeeb Rahman argued referring to an RTI query that the
agreement counted only 128 pages which, in the previous council meeting,
Mayor K Chandrika had said was a document that ran into nearly a
thousand pages.

The Mayor, in the previous meeting, had explained
that the civic body was awaiting legal opinion over the ‘copious’
agreement. The confusion regarding the volume of the agreement thus
initiated arguments between the ruling and opposition fronts.

Mujeeb
Rahman also demanded that the Mayor should apologise for the delayed
take-off of the Chalai plant, expected to process 35 tonnes of garbage a
day and generate 3.2 megawatts of electricity from it.

As the
debate continued in high pitch, the main agenda regarding the spillover
projects in the People’s Plan programme of the 2012-13 fiscal and the
approval of the new projects in the 2013-14 financial year could not be
discussed, even though some councillors tried in vain to bring attention
to it. The Mayor’s statement that the matter regarding signing the
agreement would be placed in the next council meeting could not pacify
the opposition, which was adamant to make the Mayor mention the exact
number of pages in the agreement. Following which, the Mayor left her
seat and Deputy Mayor G Happykumar controlled the proceedings. After
which, the councillors presented the adjournment motions.

Road Grant

In
an adjournment motion moved by Works Standing Committee chairman V S
Padmakumar, the council demanded that the State Government should
increase the allocation for the City Corporation in the 2013-14 state
budget for the road maintenance grant from the present Rs 18,09,81,000.
Compared to the fund allocated to Kochi Corporation (Rs 27,01,95,000),
there is a difference of Rs 8.92 crore. Thiruvananthapuram Corporation
has more than double the area that of the Kochi Corporation and hence he
demanded that the amount allocated will not suffice for the maintenance
of the roads here.