After a confrontation between the municipal council and the secretary in the Congress-ruled North Paravur municipality over the allocation of funds for the organisation of the State government’s Nava Kerala Sadas, a similar plot is now playing out in another Congress-ruled Thrikkakara municipality.
Though the Thrikkakara municipal council hasn’t yet convened to decide against allocating funds for the Nava Kerala Sadas, that seems the de facto decision of the local body. This was in keeping with the United Democratic Front position that local bodies headed by it need not issue funds. This was despite the government order urging local bodies to allot funds - ₹1 lakh in the case of Corporations and municipalities and ₹50,000 by panchayats – towards the organisation of the Nava Kerala Sadas.
“We haven’t convened a council to decide against the allocation of funds for the Nava Kerala Sadas. But I have written to the municipal secretary forbidding him from making any allocation against the will of the governing committee,” said municipal chairperson Radhamani Pillai.
However, the municipal secretary P.N. Prasad seems in no mood to fall in line citing the government order empowering either the council or the secretary to allocate the funds. He said that as a government servant, he will have to comply with the government order failing which will amount to dereliction of duty. Mr. Prasad said that the allocation need not be made in one go but issued in lots against the vouchers presented by the organisers of the Nava Kerala Sadas.
Last week, the North Paravur municipality convened an emergency council meeting and reversed its decision to allocate ₹1 lakh towards the organisation of the Nava Kerala Sadas after the opposition leader V.D. Satheeshan in a press conference warned of dire consequences to the UDF-led governing committees of local bodies, which allocated funds for the event. However, the municipal secretary there had adopted a stance similar to his Thrikkakara counterpart.
This led to dramatic scenes as the Congress councillors laid siege to the secretary and forcibly took away the file pertaining to the allocation of funds. However, the file had to be returned after the police intervention. Shortly thereafter, the secretary transferred Rs. 1 lakh online.
The incident had also led to a war of words between the opposition leader and the minister for local bodies as they accused each other of threatening the secretary.
