The Kozhikode Corporation council passed an annual project plan of ₹171 crore in a meeting chaired by Mayor Beena Philip on Friday.
The Corporation has earmarked ₹75.69 crore as plan fund while ₹10.24 crore has been set aside for scheduled castes welfare, and ₹45.56 crore as maintenance funds of which ₹25.27 crore is for roads while the rest is for non-road maintenance.
The funds have been distributed over 18 sections including health, administration, agriculture, fisheries, animal welfare, local economic development, poverty alleviation, social justice, gender development, scheduled castes, development of tribespeople, cleanliness and hygiene, education, housing, drinking water, public works, town planning, culture, and biodiversity management.
Meanwhile, the UDF councillors staged a walkout in protest against a fall in funds allotted from the State. They alleged that the Corporation got ₹86 crore in the previous financial year while only ₹76 crore has been allotted this year. However, the Deputy Mayor said that it was the same in the previous year as well, and that ₹10 crore was allotted later. He said that the spill over funds may be allotted later.
The BJP councillors turned up sporting black cloths tied around their mouth, in protest against the Mayor for allegedly framing councillors in fake cases. The Mayor answered that her complaint was not fake and that BJP councillors T. Rinish and Saritha Parayeri had indeed damaged the sound system in the council hall during the previous meeting that turned violent over the building number scam.
The BJP demanded that the Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau investigate the scam and “free the Corporation from the parallel administration mafia.”
