Local residents taking an oath to protect the Kallai river during a protest meet against the proposed sewage treatment plant on Pallikkandy-Azheekkal Road in Kozhikode on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: K. Ragesh
Local people of Kothi and Pallikkandy on Sunday took an oath that they would prevent the Kozhikode Corporation from building the proposed sewage treatment plant (STP) on the Pallikandy-Azheekal road, flouting the Coastal Regulatory Zone rules and filling a portion of the Kallai river for the purpose.
Hundreds of people assembled at the proposed site of the STP on Sunday to take part in the protest meeting organised under the aegis of the Anti-STP action committee. United Democratic Front leader in the Kozhikode Corporation K.C. Shobitha opened the meeting and administered the pledge.
In her inaugural address, Ms. Shobitha said that those who should be protecting the river were flouting CRZ rules to add to its destruction. “The Mayor and Deputy Mayor, who claim that all the apprehensions of local people will be addressed before the STPs at Kothi and Avikkal Thodu were constructed, were not ready to start an STP in their wards,” Ms. Shobhita added.
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Protest committee chairman Faisal Pallikkandy presided over the meeting and said that the committee will defend the land at any cost if the corporation was hell-bent on implementing the project in a thickly populated locality, especially since the Corporation had land readily available elsewhere. “This land is part of the encroachment on river Kallai, which was identified in all the surveys held by the Revenue department. This comes under the land the High Court of Kerala had ordered to be evicted,” Mr .Pallikkandy said. “What was the need of getting it back from the encroachers if it had to be misused by the Corporation?” he asked
UDF councillors of the Corporation K. Moideen Koya, S.K. Aboobakker and T. Davood, Chairman of the anti-STP action committee at Avikkal Thodu, besides representatives of various political parties and residents’ associations of the region took part in the meeting.
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