Contracts for the separate collection and transportation of refuse, including plastic and biodegradable waste, from the city streets was annulled by the Kochi Corporation on Monday.
The decision was announced by Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain after a stormy session of the corporation council on Monday. The local body will invite new bids for the collection and transportation of waste. The corporation will take up the responsibility of removal of waste during the interim period. Vehicles will be hired by the local body for ₹1,320 a trip for the purpose, said the Mayor. The day witnessed the Opposition adopting new protest modes in the council, and the Congress councillors displaying unusual loyalty to the administration, and defending the Mayor against the Opposition attack.
As the council met on the day to specifically discuss waterlogging and the issue of tardy removal of refuse from streets, K.J. Antony, the LDF leader in the council, announced that he and his fellow councillors would sat on the floor of the council during the business hours.
This step, said Mr. Antony, was to declare solidarity with the residents whose lives were hit by the flooding in the city. The LDF councillors also raised placards and banners demanding the resignation of the Mayor.
Though the Mayor and Deputy Mayor T. J. Vinod requested the LDF councillors to go back to their seats, they refused to budge. Later, they returned to their seats after the Mayor held a discussion with the chairpersons and leaders of political parties in the council.
All the speakers from the Opposition, including Benedict Fernandez, V.P. Chandran, K.J. Prakashan, K.C. Peter, and Poornima Narayanan, and BJP councillor Shyamala S. Prabhu focused on the failures of the administration and demanded the resignation of the Mayor. However, the Congress councillors tried to play down the incidents of flooding and pointed out the instances when earlier councils, led by the LDF, came under criticism for failing to control flooding in the city.
M. Premachandran of the Congress tried to put the blame on agencies like Kochi Metro, Southern Railway and the PWD for failing to carry out pre-monsoon works, which according to him, resulted in the flooding. K.R. Premakumar of the Congress conceded that there had been some delay in implementing pre-monsoon projects.
The Deputy Mayor found fault with the defective software to which the local body was supposed to upload the tenders and other details of the cleaning of major canals. This resulted in delayed processing of files, he said.
In her reply, the Mayor too focused on the failure of line departments and other agencies in implementing pre-monsoon works, which resulted in the flooding.
