The Kochi Corporation and the State government were asked by the Kerala High Court to file reports on the proposed Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) at West Kochi.
It was on a petition filed by C.A. Faisal challenging the move of Cochin Smart Mission Limited that a Single judge of the court issued the order on Tuesday.
The court asked the government to come up with its statement on the earlier order of the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), Fort Kochi, that banned the construction activities on Pathayathodu, a canal that flows through the Kalvathy area in West Kochi. The petitioner contended that the Kochi Corporation had violated the order of the RDO and cleared the project proposal. The court also sought a report on the statement of the village officer that the area where the plant is proposed has been marked as a pond in the Basic Tax Register.
The Kochi Corporation is of the view that the plant is being set up by the Mission though its council had earlier cleared the proposal.
The move to set up the plant was greeted by a series of protests. The protesters demanded that the plant be shifted from the highly populated location to a safer place.
The Court has posted the case to November 3.
Meanwhile, the Mission authorities have instructed the firm concerned to finalise the design component of the plant as it obtained the results of the soil investigation conducted at the site. The results of the soil investigation were handed over to the contractor the other day. Once the finer changes in the design are completed, the work would start, said Mission officials.
The proposal is to complete the plant in two years.
Opposition councillors had protested against the reported statement of the Mission authorities that the plant would come up at the site, despite the protests. T.K. Asharaf, who became the chairman of the Health Standing Committee of the Kochi Corporation with the support of the LDF in the council, is in the forefront of the agitation.
