The Kozhikode Corporation is taking steps to work with Tver city in Russia based on the twin-city project. A special meeting of the corporation council on Tuesday decided to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Indo-Russian Diplomatic Bond and 550th anniversary of the arrival of Russian traveller Afanasy Nikitin by forming a connection with Tver, the home town of Nikitin.
A Russian delegation will visit Kozhikode on April 17, and attend a meeting at hotel Malabar Palace in Kozhikode followed by cultural programmes. There will also be a Russian food festival. The council also decided to renovate Customs Roads near the beach and rename it after Nikitin.
Nikitin is said to be one of the first European travellers who visited India. He comes from Tver, a city located around 180 kilometres North West of Moscow, at the confluence of Volga, Tmaka and Tvertsa rivers. According to available records, Nikitin left Tver to travel through the Volga river to India. He had engaged in trade in Kozhikode and later moved to Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
Bharatiya Janata Party councillors in the council demanded postponement of the agenda as the details of the project were not clear. However, Mayor Beena Philip’s explanation silenced them. She said the project was an effort to get in touch with the past of the city and that Nikitin had written about Kozhikode in his journals.
Saving water sources
The council also decided to implement the 'Thelineerozhukum Nava Keralam' project of the State government to save the water sources in the State from pollution. The project involves making a list of water sources , collecting samples from severely polluted ones and determining the extent of pollution through testing, cleaning the polluted ones with the help of the public, taking action to eliminate pollution in water sources through civic action and ensuring alternatives for scientific waste management. Opposition councillors, including K.C. Shobhita, K. Moideen Koya and S.K. Aboobakker, questioned the project citing the failure of similar ones in the past.
