Former chairman of the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) N. Venugopal has slammed the ‘white paper’ published by the agency as an effort of the new governing council to cover up its failure to propose people-friendly projects in the budget.
In a statement issued here on Friday, Mr. Venugopal described the accusations directed at the previous governing committee as “baseless” and an attempt at “character assassination”. He also welcomed any kind of inquiry into the allegations raised.
Mr. Venugopal said no money from the GCDA account had been used for vegetable farming, while the returns went to the GCDA staff recreation club and society. The expenditure incurred for watering the lawn in front of the GCDA office was attributed to vegetable farming. The chairman was raising such baseless allegations either out of ignorance or to gain political mileage, said Mr. Venugopal.
The GCDA’s aqua tourism project at Mundamveli was only halfway through and the agency had ignored it completely over the last seven months. It was unclear what the chairman aimed at by harping over the loss without even bothering to reap the first harvest, said Mr. Venugopal. Thousands of fish had died for want of care, and more were still in cages. Fish sold even without inviting tenders had fetched as much as ₹4.75 lakh.
The new chairman ensured the failure of the laser project at Rajendra Maidan by denying its staging for the last five months. Mr. Venugopal claimed that the show raked in ₹26 lakh in its first year.
The former chairman said that when he stepped down, the GCDA account was richer by ₹30 crore compared to the time he assumed charge.
