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.