KOCHI: Holding Mayor Soumini Jain responsible for the “ineffective pre-monsoon cleanliness and resultant flooding” in the city, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) has demanded her resignation.
LDF members will take out a march to the corporation office on Thursday to press the demand.
The Opposition councillors also vowed to step up pressure on the civic administration in the corporation council.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, LDF leaders K.J. Antony, V.P. Chandran, and Poornima Narayan said the Mayor and the ruling dispensation had ignored suggestions for speeding up pre-monsoon cleaning-up activities.
The councillors said they had alerted the Mayor way back in January that any delay in executing the work would lead to flooding.
However, the administration took things lightly, resulting in misery for the people, they said.
“Earlier, de-silting of drains and canals in the city used to be over by March. This time, the tender for cleaning up the Thevara-Perandoor canal was opened only on Tuesday. Moreover, it will take a few more days for the files to be processed. De-silting will be a futile exercise if it is carried out during the rainy season,” they added.
The councillors also accused the Mayor and the civic administrators of not attending to the pressing needs of the city.
“The Mayor is on an inauguration spree and is not paying attention to her responsibilities,” they alleged.
The councillors said the residents of several colonies and low-lying areas, which were inundated during the recent rain, lived under fear of disease outbreak. “The civic body should protect the lives of the poor and affected residents. The rain-hit people should be rehabilitated immediately,” they said.
The councillors also held the Ernakulam MLA and MP responsible for the crisis.
“The duo cannot run away from their responsibilities. The civic body should commission an expert study to device schemes to arrest flooding. It was the earlier LDF regime under C.M. Dinesh Mani as Mayor that commissioned a study on the matter,” they said.
