Union Minister of State (MoS) in Ministry of External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Sunday alleged "huge corruption in the waste management of Kochi Corporation" and demanded that the Kochi mayor should resign owning moral responsibility of the fire incident at Brahmapuram waste plant.
The fire occurred on March 2 and it is still not been extinguished completely. Last week, the Kerala High Court has also directed the Pollution Control Board to inform about measures taken over the fire incidents happening every year at the waste plant.
Talking to the media, Muraleedharan said, "It is a clear case of corruption. The contract was given to the relative of a CPI (M) leader. That itself shows that there has been a huge corruption in the waste management of Kochi Corporation".
"Either the Kochi Corporation which has the prime responsibility of waste management should be dissolved. If not that, at least the Mayor, the leader of the whole administration of the Kochi Corporation, should be asked to resign owning moral responsibility," Muraleedharan added.
He said that the state government should own the responsibility in the matter.
"Such issues of corruption are painful for Kerala. Both the LDF and the UDF, are hand-in glows on such issues. Even this issue is still in a way crossing for the last more than a week. Kochi, Ernakulam and now engulfing the neighbouring districts as well. So in a democratic setup, the elected rulers have a responsibility to the people. So the Party which rules the State Government, they should own that responsibility and take corrective action," he said.
Following the fire incident, the rescue operation was started under which over 5,000 litres of water were sprayed in active fire zones. On March 5, the district administration of Ernakulam declared a holiday for children in all schools in areas under Kochi corporation and the nearby municipalities and gram panchayats, as huge and thick clouds of toxic smoke billowing from the site engulfed the city.
Further, Responding to the allegations levelled by Swapna Suresh in the gold-smuggling case, MoS Muraleedharan said that he believed that the allegations are true.
"There have been earlier also attempts to silence her. When she was in jail, there were attempts made by some policewomen to create fabricated issues against her. So, saying that just because she is accused, the allegation doesn't have any substance, cannot be an argument. In this case, the state government, the Chief Minister, and the CMO who is under the cloud of suspicion. I definitely feel some substance in what she has said. Otherwise, the state government would have taken some corrective action, which hasn't happened," he further said.
Talking about Union Home Minister Amit Shah's visit to Thrissur, MoS Muraleedharan said that BJP has started its poll preparations across the country.
"2024 is just a year away. BJP has started its preparations across the country and Amit Shah ji is one of the senior leaders of the party. So the party's national president, the Prime Minister and Amit Shah ji, are all planning to travel to various places where BJP plans to focus in the coming days. So you can definitely say that it is the sort of a curtain raiser for the BJP's preparatory activities for the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala," Muraleedharan added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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