Nemom MLA and the former Mayor V.Sivankutty said here on Tuesday that the Barcelona model Twin City scheme promoted by Shashi Tharoor, MP, was a sham perpetrated on the people of the capital city.
In a sharp reaction to Mr.Tharoor's statement on Monday that the City Corporation had squandered away the opportunity to benefit from the Twin City pact, Mr. Sivankutty said the MP did not have the mandate to sign an agreement with the Barcelona city council.
He said Mr.Tharoor's repeated utterances on the subject gave room for suspicion about his interest in seeing the pact through.
“Twinning cities is not a new concept. Mayors and civic officials often get an opportunity to visit new places under such partnership schemes. However, such twinning programmes have not so far yielded any socially relevant benefit.”
Several proposals
Mr. Sivankutty said several such proposals that had come up during his tenure as Mayor had been rejected on the grounds that they offered no scope for social benefit.
He said the people would see through Mr.Tharoor's attempts to run down the LDF by raising baseless allegations.
Mr. Sivankutty said the Thiruvananthapuram Parliament constituency had witnessed the lowest utilisation of funds allocated under the MPLAD scheme.
“Not even people's representatives are aware of what the funds were used for. The MP is trying to evade responsibility by blaming officials for the situation.”
Mr.Sivankutty alleged that the MP had failed to take action on several priority projects like railway development, High Court Bench, airport development, and widening of the Karamana- Kaliyikkavila road.
“He has not initiated any project for the development of the coastal areas, flood control for the city or cleaning of the Parvathy Puthanar. By raising unsubstantiated charges against the LDF, he is only trying to hog the media limelight.”
