In what is being widely perceived as a political counter-initiative to the Left Democratic Front-led Kerala government’s much-publicised Navakerala Sadas, the Congress-ruled Maradu municipality in Ernakulam is set to organise a similar Jana Sadas.
The Navakerala Sadas is set be held in Ernakulam district from December 7 to 10, while the Jana Sadas will be held for four days across four important locations in the municipality between November 28 and December 4 with a day’s break each in between.
The move comes close on the heels of the municipal council’s decision not to contribute ₹1 lakh towards the organisation of the Navakerala Sadas, thus defying a government order to that effect.
‘Sending a message’
“We want to sent across a message to all local bodies that they can deliver services to people at their doorsteps without coughing up ₹1 lakh for the organisation of the Navakerala Sadas which has been reduced to a political gimmick,” said Maradu municipal chairman Antony Ashanparambil.
However, the Opposition LDF in the municipality dismissed the initiative as an eyewash. This was an attempt by the municipality to pre-empt residents from approaching the Navakerala Sadas seeking redressal despite having failed to address people’s complaints in several such adalats in the past, said LDF parliamentary party leader C.R. Shanavas.
The municipality is set to convene a meeting of eminent personalities, residents’ associations, and political parties on November 25 to discuss the organisation of the Jana Sadas. Apart from councillors, officials of the revenue, engineering and health wings of the municipality will be present through all four days of the Jana Sadas.
The municipality with 33 divisions has been divided into four zones and a location convenient for people to reach has been selected in each zone for conducting the event.
“One of the priority areas will be removing the hurdles in receiving the benefit of the municipality’s decision to completely exempt buildings with less than 660 sq ft from building tax. There are also cases in which demolition of old buildings have not been recorded at the municipality. We estimate that there would be around 2,000 cases on these counts and aim at giving instant service to eligible beneficiaries on the spot,” said Mr. Ashanparambil.
On all four days, applications will be received from the public between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Thereafter, officials will sit through as much time as it takes to vet the applications. Where the issues cannot be resolved at the spot, the officials will work out a solution and return to the applicants at a later date, said Mr. Ashanparambil.
