Thiruvananthapuram: The council meeting held here on Wednesday began on a tense note with the BJP walking out of the council hall alleging corruption in
literacy campaign ‘Aksharasree’.
BJP, which had been raising allegations against chairman of development standing committee Vanchiyur P Babu, regarding allocation of fund for literacy campaign conducted by state literacy mission in the plan fund, raised slogans and placards before walking out of the council as soon as mayor began the proceedings of the council meeting.
BJP parliamentary party leader Girikumar, while presenting a submission, said that there should be clarity in mode of execution of
Aksharasree literacy campaign which is set to be launched on Thursday. He said that as per the conditions, the food for surveyors ought to be provided by ward councillors while an amount of Rs 4.5 crore has been allotted for the project. He demanded an explanation from mayor V K Prasanth who declined to heed the submission and went on with the proceedings. BJP councillors stood up and shouted slogans and later walked out of the hall raising allegations of corruption against mayor V K Prasanth and Vanchiyur P Babu.
Later the UDF councillors pledged support for literacy campaign but demanded that flaws should be addressed in the execution of the scheme. Education standing committee chairman S Unnikrishnan said that it was pitiable that BJP raised food issue to thwart a noble mission and that corporation aimed at ensuring cent percent literacy for those who could not complete their studies due to various reasons.
Mayor V K Prasanth said that an amount of Rs 2.75 crore has been allocated in two projects and that it was baseless to level allegations against a project which is completely done as per the terms and conditions of
city corporation. “You can only call it unfortunate that BJP is trying to ruin the scheme citing food as the reason. It was decided to arrange food for surveyors in households because we wanted involvement of people, that's one of the ways such kind of schemes reach out to public,” he said.
With BJP councillors absent in the council, the new parking policy for parking lots was also approved by the council without any discussion.
