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.