Three days after writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair castigated the Kozhikode Corporation over water supply related issues, the Corporation council has decided to approach the Minister for Water Resources for a remedy.
It was on Sunday that the writer said, in the presence of Mayor Thottathil Raveendran and Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, that his locality had been facing severe water shortage for the past 20 days. The Mayor took it as an opportunity to point out the helplessness of the Corporation as the ball was in the court of Kerala Water Authority (KWA), which had been allegedly neglecting complaints from the Corporation regarding water supply.
LJD councillor P. Kishenchand, who kicked off the debate in the council meeting on Wednesday, said that Mr. Nair’s allegations were baseless as the area rarely had water shortage continuously for two days. Congress councillor K.C. Shobhitha blamed the Water Authority for shoddy repair works carried out in different parts of the city, and as a result of which roads were in bad condition. BJP councillor Navya Haridas complained that some parts of her division, Karapparamba, had not received water for the past three months and that complaints to KWA had not earned any results. This was followed by a barrage of complaints related to water supply by councillors.
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The Mayor said the Finance Minister had offered funds to sort out the issue. However, he was planning to meet the Minister for Water Resources to ensure cooperation and better response from the KWA in these issues, he said.
Cold response
The cold response from Corporation departments to applications under the Right to Information Act was another issue pointed out by councillors on Wednesday. IUML councillor C. Abdurahman presented documents to prove that Corporation officials were not giving proper replies to RTI applications. The replies to such applications included the following — ‘the information will be provided as the missing file is found’, and ‘action is being taken on the complaint.’
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The Mayor and the Corporation Secretary cited the workload of officials as the reason behind providing such replies.
Earlier, the council witnessed some heated arguments and a walkout by opposition councillors after the Mayor denied permission to two adjournment motions. The motion proposed by P.M. Niyas called for law against violence on campuses, while Navya Haridas proposed a CBI inquiry into the recent violence on the University College campus in Thiruvananthapuram.