The Local Self-Government Department Principal Secretary T.K. Jose’s alleged criticism of Thrikkakara municipality during the plan fund expenditure review meeting held on Monday seems to have irked the municipal authorities with chairperson K.K. Neenu rebutting the charges through a Facebook post and asking him to treat it as a warning.
In the post on Tuesday, Ms. Neenu has stated that Thrikkakara had topped the list during the last fiscal with a plan fund utilisation of 90% and 96% of the funds for Scheduled Caste development. She accused Mr. Jose of denigrating the municipality at a meeting to review the plan fund expenditure based on factually incorrect accusations — that the municipality had drawn up the public works bills at a hotel, the plan fund expenditure was only 16%, and the municipality was apathetic towards utilising the funds meant for Scheduled Caste communities last year.
The public works bills were being prepared by a municipal assistant engineer, who is a woman. What message was the principal secretary trying to convey by alleging that the woman official had prepared the bill in a hotel room, asked Ms. Neenu. She has demanded an apology from the secretary for making such a statement.
Pending bills
The chairperson attributed the poor plan fund utilisation to bills worth ₹1.85 crore pending with the treasury. It was for the government to intervene to clear the bills and it was not the fault of the municipality, she said.
Ms. Neenu has asked the official to be cautious about making baseless allegations and to consider her post as a warning.
Responding to the allegations, Mr. Jose said the chairperson was not present during the review meeting held at the District Planning Committee conference hall at the civil station. “The review was held publicly in the presence of the minister and other people’s representatives and there was no secrecy surrounding it. Thrikkakara remains the worst performer among the municipalities in Ernakulam,” he said.
Online clearance system
Shooting down the claim that the performance was affected by the pending bills in the treasury, Mr. Jose said the municipality should not have waited till the pending dues rose to ₹1.85 crore. “There is an online clearance system for bills above ₹25 lakh, which the municipal secretary had no knowledge about.
Besides, the local bodies need not wait till the amount rises to ₹25 lakh to present bills. Thrikkakara did none of these,” he said.
Mr. Jose dismissed the allegation that he had accused the municipality of preparing bills in a hotel room. He said he had simply recounted an incident from the past when a secretary of Thrikkakara municipality was caught by the Vigilance from a hotel room with over 450 building permit applications.
