Elections in Neyyattinkara are never short of drama, and the upcoming local body polls in the municipality promise to be no different.
A Left Democratic Front (LDF) bastion, the municipality will see an intense tussle this time between the ruling LDF and the United Democratic Front (UDF), with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) adding a very interesting third angle to the fight.
The LDF scooped up the 44-seat municipal council in 2015 with wins in 22 wards and support from an Independent, and is confident that its development plank will catapult it to success yet again.
Waste management was one of the top priorities for the LDF. “We got the Suchitwa tag for clean municipality, courtesy 20 aerobic bins, segregation of waste, and plastic recycling,” says W.R. Heeba, CPI(M) chairperson of the municipality.
Toilets and electricity connections are the other major achievements. It became a tuberculosis-free municipality and bagged honours thrice for palliative care.
On the education front, high-tech school project, handbook for students appearing for the SSLC examinations, and model examinations were implemented by the municipality.
“We completely settled a ₹55.55 crore debt with government support, and won an award for the municipality that collected the most tax.”
Her regret—not being able to get a crematorium for the municipality off the ground. “The agreement has been signed but the work could not take off owing to COVID-19.”
Ms. Heeba says she is proud to have led a corruption-free administration. “There were some allegations but none has been proved. I did not even accept the chairperson’s honorarium.”
Corruption, however, is one of the weapons in the UDF arsenal to reclaim the municipality that it last won in 2010. Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing council A. Lalitha says the municipality used to be at the top in fund utilisation but now has utilised only 36% of the funds. Corruption started from purchase of land at Eeratinpuram in 2015-16 and continues. Graft allegations were raised from even within the CPI(M). Recently, on the pretext of pond cleaning, all the slurry was sold for crores, she alleges. “Not one aerobic bin is functioning properly. A material recovery facility that was set up is overrun with wild growth. One cannot walk through Neyyattinkara town without covering the nose.”
Street lights are not functioning, and renovation of SC colonies has reached nowhere. A COVID centre at the Neyyattinkara higher secondary school has not seen one admission, says Ms. Lalitha.
The BJP, for its part, is hoping to notch up more gains and improve its tally of five seats in 2015. The crematorium is one of the most pressing needs of the people that is yet to be realised by either of the two fronts, says Shibu Raj Krishna, leader of the BJP in the municipal council. Decentralised waste management and plastic recycling have also been a failure. Regulation of illegal slaughter houses remains on paper, as also renovation of the Town market using KIIFB funds and setting up of the Perumpazhuthoor township. If projects have been implemented, those are Union government schemes such as 3,000 houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, toilets under Swachh Bharat, electricity under Gram Jyoti Yojana, and LPG connections under Ujjwala project, says Mr. Shibu Raj.
