The Socialist Janata (Democratic) [SJ(D)] will take out a march to the Corporation office here on Monday in protest against the move of the Kozhikode Corporation to hand over public land to private parties in the name of implementing projects in the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) mode.
Addressing a news conference here on Saturday, SJ(D) Kozhikode North- South Committee alleged that the Corporation had presented three projects in the recently concluded Partner Kerala investors’ meet. An arbitrary decision had been taken at an emergency council meeting with vested interests, P. Kishenchand, SJ(D) councillor, alleged.
The Kozhikode Corporation Council had submitted three multi-crore projects at the Partner Kerala Urban Development meet, organised by the Department of Urban Affairs in Kochi on February 24 and 25. This was after a heated debate between the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF). It was put to vote with 38 supporting and 31 objecting the agenda.
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The three projects were a parking plaza ( Rs.31 crore) at Stadium Corner, bus terminal-cum-shopping complex at Meenchanda (Rs.21 crore) and shopping complex-cum-flat at Nadakkavu (Rs.20 crore).
Mr. Kishenchand said that the civic body had conspired with the land mafia. All the three projects could be implemented by the civic body, instead of going for the PPP model, he said.
He said the Corporation could either avail itself of a loan from any nationalised bank or seek financial assistance from any other lending body through government agencies.
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Several government agencies had also evinced interest in the projects and had approached the Mayor in this regard, Mr. Kishenchand said. However, the ruling LDF had scorned these offers. It appeared that the ruling party wanted to hand over these projects to private parties ignoring the objection from the opposition councillors, he said.
SJ(D) councillors N.C. Moyinkutty, Kamala Raghunath and Jean Moses and committee members S.K. Kunhumon and P. Jayanand were present at the news conference.