The corporation council meeting held on Tuesday witnessed stormy scenes with a scathing opposition taking on Mayor Tony Chammany over the twin issues that have been plaguing the city and making life miserable for its population – water-logging and pathetic condition of roads.
However, the Mayor pointed his finger at the ongoing Kochi metro rail works and the resultant damage to drains for the unusual flooding in the city during this monsoon. He said the corporation would write to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) asking it to immediately address the issue.
The debate at times blurred the ruling-opposition divide with even the UDF councillors criticising the state of affairs in the city though they were not as severe as their opposition counterparts. Councillors wanted the Mayor to take emergency measures to spare the public of their hardships by addressing the issues related to roads and water-logging.
The Mayor said the civic body had cleared the drains of slush and concrete debris from the sites of metro piling works prior to the onset of monsoon while accusing the metro contractors for undoing it by repeatedly dumping debris in the drains clogging water flow. He claimed that the corporation had undertaken pre-monsoon cleaning drive to prevent water-logging citing the Rs.5 crore spent on de-silting canals and drains. He further pointed out how the city was spared of water-logging last year despite heavy rain to further buttress his accusation against Kochi Metro.
He told the council that a massive surface water drainage project for the entire city would be taken up with the support of State government after conducting a scientific study.
However, the opposition councillors were not ready to buy the argument stating that the Mayor could not wash off the hands by putting all the blame on Kochi Metro having failed to take effective remedial measures in advance.
CPI(M) councillor M. Anilkumar said the corporation failed to execute surface water drainage system as proposed by expert agencies despite having funds at its disposal under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission and Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Programme.
The councillors said that even roads such as SA Road, High Court – Edappally Road and MG road crumbled in the monsoon despite being built under high standards using bitumen macadam and bitumen concrete.
