This is mainly owing to the violation of tender norms which had stipulated making of bunds at a distance of 100 metres and clearing the muck spooned

out of the sewage and dumped on the sides of a canal.    This had resulted in dirt flowing into the residential areas, making people sick, the action council said, adding that the authorities had been doing it all these years.   Though 55 bunds are needed to clean up the canal, only two were put up, which was against the laid norms.

  The council said the chief technical examiner (CTE) had visited the spot recently and had taken stock of the situation. During the visit, the Irrigation Department authorities had promised the CTE to get the matter settled during the final cleaning up drive.

  The cleaning up projects spending an amount of `2 crore was taken up with much promises, the council alleged. Council secretary Stanley Paulose flayed the corporation for not fulfilling its promise made a couple of months ago to clean up the feeder canals using the Corporation’s division funds.

  “Only 20 percent of the muck had been taken out of the canals. A large amount is still lying on the Cochin College campus creating health hazards to those living in the nearby areas,” Paulose said.

  The slush is being carried away by rain water to nearby shops and even houses. Usually the silt is cleaned during summer, much before the onset of monsoon and left to dry on the sides of the canal.

  “Adding to the woes is the septic waste which finds its way to the canal in some areas,” he added.

  The water in the 5.8-kilometres-long Rameswaram canal, which has one of its mouth opening to the backwaters and the other to the sea, has been stagnant owing to the presence of slush, the action council said.