The ruling CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) in the Kozhikode Corporation Council is banking on the development activities initiated during its five-year term to return to power.
A major achievement to the Council’s credit has been the Corporation’s facility to issue birth, death and marriage certificates online. The civic body, which has a database of 17 lakh certificates of 45 years, is also the first Corporation in the State to issue certificates since 1970.
A user can get the birth, death and marriage certificates downloaded at the click of a mouse, says Deputy Mayor P.T. Abdul Latheef.
Rebuilding the Art Gallery and renovation of the EMS Stadium are other development initiatives taken during the 2010-15 period. Now the two-storey modern Art Gallery, behind the Town Hall, can conduct five shows at a time.
Prof. Latheef says a Herculean task awaited the civic body when the State government asked it to renovate the EMS Stadium for the National Games. An amount of Rs 22.5 crore was spent to restore the stadium. The Corporation spent 45 per cent of the budget, he said.
Similarly the Corporation made tremendous effort to construct the approach roads at Kothi, a project which had been hanging fire for more than a decade. All the 130 families have been rehabilitated.
Prof. Latheef says the measures adopted by the Corporation to safely dispose of garbage were appreciated at the national level.
It won two national awards for its Clean Kozhikode Project. “We got an award, including a cash prize of Rs.60 lakh, from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for carbon credit,” he said.
Initiatives taken for the waste treatment plant at the Njeliyanparamba have improved solid waste management in the city. The Corporation has tied-up with the Vengeri-based NGO, Niravu, to segregate bio-degradable and non-degradable garbage.
But the biggest campaign by the LDF would be the favourable verdict it secured from the Kerala High Court that quashed the notification of the State government to divide Kozhikode Corporation and form the Cheruvannur-Nallalam, Beypore, and Elathur municipalities, erstwhile grama panchayats that had been merged with the civic body in 2010.
