An emergency meeting of the city Corporation council was convened on Wednesday to discuss and pass the project calendar for 2015-16 and approve allocation of additional funds for various projects of 2014-15.
The council, chaired by Mayor A.K. Premajam, passed a 15-point agenda that mainly sought the council’s approval for sanctioning extra funds for various projects that had been approved earlier.
The Health standing committee’s recommendation to purchase rat poison from the Kerala State Warehousing Corporation as part of the city Corporation’s project to eradicate water- and animal-borne diseases led to serious discussions in the council. N.C. Moyin Kutty of the Socialist Janata (Democratic) said that the Corporation should try to buy rat poison from other agencies as the warehousing corporation had proved to be irresponsible so far. Many councillors pointed out that the rat poison supplied by the warehousing corporation was substandard and that rats did not die as expected.
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Deputy Mayor P.T. Abdul Latheef said the warehousing corporation was the nodal agency recommended by the State government.
The council finally agreed to approve the recommendation that the rat poison should be usable for at least two months after purchase and that it should be distributed in two instalments. The council set aside Rs.14 lakh to purchase 1.5-lakh packets of rat poison.
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The council passed an additional Rs.4 crore for projects related to public works from the year 2014-15.
The allocation for electrical works was reduced by around Rs.2 crore while around Rs.2 crore was cut down from allocation for education. Twenty-six new projects were either added or their allocation increased in the education sector for which an additional Rs.2.5 crore was sanctioned. A total of Rs.1 crore was cut down from maintenance grant for schools, while another Rs.1 crore was sanctioned for new projects.
The council sanctioned an additional Rs.6 lakh for women and child welfare. There has been no change in the allocation for agriculture, animal husbandry, scheduled castes development, fisheries, and health and sanitation. Rs.3.9 crore has been cut down from the allocation for industrial development.