The Kozhikode Corporation Council has passed a motion against the State government’s move to separate Elathur, Cheruvannur, and Beypore regions from the city Corporation and form new municipalities.
In a motion presented at an emergency meeting on Friday, Mayor A.K. Premajam pointed out that the move would thwart the Corporation’s development.
The said grama panchayats were attached to the Corporation in 2010 as it was noted that the civic body was not being considered for many Centrally aided projects due to low population.
The three regions had urban characteristics and were thickly populated.
Separating them was against the Constitution and would only freeze the development of the city, the Mayor said.
The city would once again be deprived of projects that required a population of 5 lakh and more.
In fact, there was a need to add more nearby grama panchayats to the city Corporation and convert it into a metro city. Hence, the government should withdraw from the move to divide the city, the Mayor said.
Other candidates
CPI(M) councillor C.P. Musaffir Ahamed said there were other regions in the district such as Perambra, Kunnamangalam, and Balussery that deserved to be municipalities. Dividing a Corporation and forming municipalities out of it was unheard of. He alleged that the State government’s motive behind the move was political. Development of those regions did not really matter to the government, he said.
UDF councillor Beeran Koya countered that those regions did not benefit from being part of the Corporation. They had to pay a higher tax and the Corporation had failed to address the issues in these regions.
CPI(M) councillor P. Devarajan said Elathur and Beypore had ports and hence should be part of the city. CPI(M) councillor M. Radhakrishnan pointed out that Beypore had a higher density of population and hence should be part of the city.
Councillors Limna Suresh, C.S. Sathyabhama, Vidya Balakrishnan, Zakariah P. Hussain, T. Sujan and A.V. Anwar took part in the discussions that went on for more than two hours.
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