Thiruvananthapuram Corporation passes administration report, financial statement

A council meeting of the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation on
Wednesday passed the annual administration report for 2019-20 and the
annual financial statement for 2020-21, after more than two hours of
intense debate.

Mayor Arya Rajendran said that amendments, if
required, would be made in the financial statement, based on some
discrepancies as pointed out by some of the Opposition councillors.

The
reports were placed in the council for discussion as per the demands
raised by the Opposition councillors at a previous council meeting.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors Anilkumar and Karamana Ajith
alleged that there were discrepancies in the number of vehicles owned by
the Corporation, as per the administrative report and in replies to RTI
queries.

Some vehicles were indicated as missing in the
administrative report. The councillors demanded that the Corporation
file a complaint with the police and take action against the officials
responsible, for failing in their duty. Works standing committee
chairman D.R. Anil said that he had revealed the issue of the missing
vehicles in a previous council meeting and hence the BJP councillors
should desist from presenting it as their finding.

Ms.
Rajendran said that a search committee had been constituted to
ascertain which vehicles were actually missing. Some of the vehicles had
been found to be abandoned at various locations, as they were earlier
used for decentralised waste collection, which was not happening any
more. The possibility of reusing some of these vehicles would be looked
into. A complaint would be filed with the police only for vehicles which
had actually gone missing.

Housing projects

BJP
councillor M.R. Gopan also questioned the figures regarding housing
projects in the administrative report. He said that hardly any house had
been completed under LIFE project in the Corporation. Welfare committee
chairman S. Salim countered these allegations, saying that the state
had increased funding for PMAY housing projects too, in line with the
LIFE projects, and hence gave more funds to the beneficiaries for house
construction than all other States.

Tax liability

In the
discussion on the annual financial statement, BJP councillor P.
Ashokkumar alleged that the report was ridden with errors. There was a
large tax liability of ₹200 crore in the report. The details of the
persons or the institutions which owed taxes had to be publicised, he
said.

The Deputy Mayor ₹55 crore was part of the outstanding tax
amount which had been passed down over the years. However, the rest of
the amount included the funds anticipated from the government this
fiscal.