The Congress councillors of the Kochi Corporation have stepped up their campaign against the reported transfer of civic body's land to some trusts in the city.
A signature campaign was kicked off in the city by the councillors on Thursday with V.R Krishna Iyer, former judge, Supreme Court, affixing his signature against the land transfer.
A representation, with the signatures of socio-cultural leaders of the State, will be submitted to the Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan urging him to intervene to stop the deal, said A.B Sabu, the UDF leader of the Kochi Corporation.
The decision of the civic body to assign a few holdings owned by the Kochi Corporation to some trusts to construct memorials for socio-political leaders including T.K. Ramakrishnan had invited stiff resistance from the opposition councillors.
Opposing the move, the councillors had alleged that civic administration was attempting to handover the land to some trusts.
E.M. Sunilkumar, the CPI representative and the chairman of the Town Planning Standing of the Kochi Corporation, had openly come out against the move.
He had also stated in the corporation council that no decision was taken to assign the land of the corporation to any trusts.
Any such decision regarding the holdings of the Kochi Corporation should be discussed in the Town Planning Committee. The committee has not taken any decision regarding land deal, he said.
Defending the decision, Deputy Mayor C.K. Manisankar said that the decision to construct the memorials was passed in the corporation budget.
