The LDF councillors on Monday staged a protest by squatting on the floor of the council hall demanding a probe into the delay in implementing the e-governance programme even as the State government has convened a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue.
Leaving his seat, the LDF leader K.J. Anotny, who raised the issue, sat on the floor as the council meeting progressed. He was followed by Poornima Narayan and Prathibha Ansari, the two standing committee chairpersons from the LDF.
V.P. Chandran, the parliamentary party leader of the CPI(M), and other Opposition councillors too joined the protest.
They raised placards demanding inquiry into the non-implementation of the project.
The meeting, convened by Minister for Local-Self Government A.C. Moideen, will be held in Thiruvananthapuram.
Mr. Antony raised allegations of corruption in awarding the e-governance programme to TCS, which had earlier won the bid for implementing the programme. Of the ₹8.1 crore to be paid for the programme, the local body had paid ₹4.94 crore, he said.
Before TCS, Information Kerala Mission was in charge of digitising the database of various services offered by the local body.
The e-governance programme could not be rolled out as TCS withdrew from the project following dispute with the local body. The Mission, alleged civic representatives, also refused to share the database.
Defending the civic administration, Deputy Mayor T. J. Vinod demanded that TCS be black-listed for failing to fulfil its contractual obligations to the local body.
The Opposition councillors should have raised the issue with the State government than going in for a protest meeting, he said.
In her reply, Mayor Soumini Jain said the Corporation was awaiting government clearance for appointing an IT officer in the local body.
Unauthorised eateries
The delay in closing down the illegal eateries and bunk shops at Panampilly Nagar invited the wrath of the civic authorities. After the health authorities failed to remove the illegal ones as decided earlier, the Mayor directed them to remove the outlets without fail.
