Scheme to bring drinking water to Maradu stalled: Mayor

The Hindu      22.12.2010

Scheme to bring drinking water to Maradu stalled: Mayor

KOCHI: The drinking water scheme to bring water from the Muvattupuzha
river to Maradu in the city under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban
Renewal Mission has stalled, Mayor Tony Chammany told the Council
meeting here on Tuesday.

The scheme which required laying of pipelines from Pazhoor to Maradu
has run into a roadblock with residents of Piravom objecting to the
digging up of their roads for pipe-laying, said the Mayor.

Explaining the scheme, the Project Engineer of Corporation told the
council that the Rs. 201 crore scheme was being implemented in five
phases, work for which was progressing simultaneously. This required
cutting a nine-km road stretch from Piravom to Mulanthuruthy.

The new alignment proposed would lead to higher costs as the original
alignment was prepared with the aim to bring water up to Maradu using
gravitational force, the official said.

Winding up the discussion on the issue, the Mayor said that this
issue would be taken up with the meeting scheduled with Minister for
Public Works. Standing committee chairmen K.J. Sohan and T.J. Vinod will
also be there in the delegation representing the civic body along with
the Mayor.

Participating in the discussion, K.J. Jacob, Leader of Opposition,
said that a consensus should be reached as different local bodies are
involved. The people of the city should not be pitted against those of
the neighbouring panchayat, he said.

M. Anil Kumar, T.J. Vinod, K.J. Sohan, Sojan Antony and K.B. Manoj spoke on this.

Mr. Chammany said that Rs. 15,000 out of Rs. 50,000 allotted for each
ward for canal clearing works would be released immediately.

The usual practice is to release the fund in two instalments of Rs.
25,000 each. However, the financial condition of the civic body does not
allow at present to do that, as this month required disbursement of two
months’ salary for employees, he said.

Representations will also be filed before the Ministers for Finance
and Water Resources against the move to cut down the maintenance fund
for water distribution, Mr. Chammany told the Council.

The agency that has taken the contract for maintaining street lights
has informed that they would be unable to continue with the contract.
Steps will be taken to cancel the contract after seeking legal opinion,
he said.

A decision on this would be taken at the next steering committee meeting, Mr. Chammany said.

He asked councillor Gracy Joseph to lodge a complaint with the City
Police when she raised the issue of disruptive behaviour of migrant
labourers camping near Manappattiparambu and assured that he would also
get in touch with the City Police Commissioner on this.

The Council also expressed its protest against the KSRTC unilaterally
deciding the routes for new services of the low-floor buses in the
district. Efforts would be made to assert the Corporation’s right and
authority to decide route and destination of the next lot of services,
Mr. Chammany said.

Councillor Mumtaz said that the families of those who died in the
accident at Palarivattom bypass junction on Sunday and those admitted to
hospital should be given financial aid.

Participating in the discussion, K.R. Premkumar said steps should be taken to check reckless driving by tipper trucks.

Councillor N.A. Shafeeq raised the issue of service roads, which have
been repaired recently, on either side of the NH Bypass being used by
leading commercial institutions for their parking. This was causing
accidents and could escalate into a major issue, he said.

Sajini Jayachandran, C.A. Shakeer, K.N. Sunil Kumar, Pious Joseph,
Pathukutty Ashraf, Antony Kureethara, Sudha Dileepkumar, T.N. Chandrika,
Bhama Padmanabhan, P.R. Ranish, Suresh P.D., Shyla Thaddeus, A.H.
Niyaz, P.S. Manikantarajan, Karmeli Antony and M.P. Mahesh Kumar
participated in discussions.

Earlier, the council passed two resolutions calling for expediting
the work of the proposed stadium by Kerala Cricket Association at
Edakochi. Another resolution condemned the move by Mulanthuruthy
panchayat to stake claim for naming a school after poet Vyloppilli
Sreedhara Menon on his birth centenary year.