A council meeting of the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation on Wednesday passed the annual administration report for 2019-20 and the annual financial statement for 2020-21, after more than two hours of intense debate.
Mayor Arya Rajendran said that amendments, if required, would be made in the financial statement, based on some discrepancies as pointed out by some of the Opposition councillors.
The reports were placed in the council for discussion as per the demands raised by the Opposition councillors at a previous council meeting. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors Anilkumar and Karamana Ajith alleged that there were discrepancies in the number of vehicles owned by the Corporation, as per the administrative report and in replies to RTI queries.
Some vehicles were indicated as missing in the administrative report. The councillors demanded that the Corporation file a complaint with the police and take action against the officials responsible, for failing in their duty. Works standing committee chairman D.R. Anil said that he had revealed the issue of the missing vehicles in a previous council meeting and hence the BJP councillors should desist from presenting it as their finding.
Ms. Rajendran said that a search committee had been constituted to ascertain which vehicles were actually missing. Some of the vehicles had been found to be abandoned at various locations, as they were earlier used for decentralised waste collection, which was not happening any more. The possibility of reusing some of these vehicles would be looked into. A complaint would be filed with the police only for vehicles which had actually gone missing.
Housing projects
BJP councillor M.R. Gopan also questioned the figures regarding housing projects in the administrative report. He said that hardly any house had been completed under LIFE project in the Corporation. Welfare committee chairman S. Salim countered these allegations, saying that the state had increased funding for PMAY housing projects too, in line with the LIFE projects, and hence gave more funds to the beneficiaries for house construction than all other States.
Tax liability
In the discussion on the annual financial statement, BJP councillor P. Ashokkumar alleged that the report was ridden with errors. There was a large tax liability of ₹200 crore in the report. The details of the persons or the institutions which owed taxes had to be publicised, he said.
The Deputy Mayor ₹55 crore was part of the outstanding tax amount which had been passed down over the years. However, the rest of the amount included the funds anticipated from the government this fiscal.
