Tough year ahead for Chammany

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Kochi: It will not be a smooth sail for the ruling UDF in the corporation in 2013. Matters like corruption allegations, vigilance probe against the mayor and four others and a rap from the Comptroller and Auditor General for the serious lapses in tax collection are likely to take the sheen out of the administration.
While the opposition has not been cooperating with the council procedures and standing committee meetings for the last few months, the dissident Congress ‘I’ members have also joined them by filing a complaint against works committee chairperson Soumini Jain who allegedly permitted road cutting works without discussing it in the works committee meeting.
The ‘I’ group members in the works committee Shyla Thadevoos, Mini Mol and K.R Prem Kumar filed a complaint with the corporation secretary and the Local Self Government Department secretary on Saturday. “The chairperson has violated the Muni­cipalities Act by sanctioning road cutting works without discussing the files in the committee meeting. She also didn’t provide details of the money received to the mayor’s development fund as restoration charge from road cutting works”, said Shyla Thadevoos.
It is generally observed that resolving the internal feud within the ruling bench would be a tough task for the mayor and his team. However, with a safe majority, leaders in the A-group are confident of facing any challenge, even a no-confidence motion.
Meanwhile, mayor Tony Chammany refuted the allegations as ‘baseless’ and said that the charges of the ‘I’ group works committee members would be clarified in the council meeting.“Though remedial measures have been initiated to streamline the functioning of various dep­artments and officials in view of the CAG report, if the political stalemate co­ntinues, it will affect the functioning of the civic administration”, remar­ke­d a top source at the corporation.