The Kochi Corporation Council meeting ended abruptly on a noisy note amid sloganeering by the LDF, for the third consecutive time, on Wednesday.
The day began with the LDF raising the issue of granting permission to telecom major Reliance Jio for cutting the road open to lay cables. Alleging that the civic administration was neck-deep in corruption, K.J. Antony, CPI(M) leader in the council, said the civic body had sustained huge financial loss by permitting Reliance Infocom to cut the road open for laying its cables.
Quoting a local fund audit report, CPI(M) Parliamentary Party leader V.P. Chandran said the civic administration had failed to plug the revenue leak and collect what was due to it. He also questioned what he termed was a clandestine move by the civic administrators to permit the company to lay cables in the city.
As the Opposition members attempted to corner the administration and Mayor Soumini Jain, UDF standing committee chairpersons A.B. Sabu and K.V.P. Krishnakumar came all out in her support.
Deputy Mayor T.J. Vinod fortified the UDF’s position and took the fight to the Opposition camp by suggesting a joint inspection of files.
Panel proposed
Decrying the LDF’s stand as an attempt to create a smokescreen, Mr. Vinod proposed that a committee headed by LDF leaders K.J. Antony, V.P. Chandran, and the Mayor inspect the files and report to the council.
However, the LDF members refused to bite the bait and went on with their vocal protests. Some LDF members even proclaimed during the proceedings that they would not buy the Mayor’s statements on the issue.
Though they had earlier demanded that the Mayor reply to the issue without waiting for the general discussion to be over, the latter refused to budge.
As the Mayor attempted to explain her position, the Opposition members started shouting slogans and disrupted the proceedings. An unrelenting Mayor wound up the proceedings as her reply drowned in sloganeering, and the agenda items were passed without discussion.
