Public protest pays off: Govt hunts for alternative sites

Thiruvananthapuram: Finally, public protest has paid off. The district administration has begun hunt for alternative sites to construct a war memorial, which was initially planned at the century-old Chithira Thirunal football ground at Shankumugham.
Residents were worried over the decision of district administration to hand over the 1.55-acre land to the Sainik Welfare Board to construct a war memorial.

Ever since cyclone Ockhi hit the coastal area, this ground adjacent to Kannanthura St Peter’s Church, which was donated by erstwhile Travancore royal family in 1971, turned out to be the lone playing arena for football enthusiasts in the locality.

With the proposal for constructing a war memorial at their home ground, football enthusiasts would have been left with no space to conduct football, cricket and badminton matches. The ground was also used for morning walks.

Four months ago football enthusiasts and players belonging to the fisher community and other residents of the locality protested against the government move and conveyed their objections when the officials of district administration came to conduct a survey of the place. TOI had earlier reported the anxieties of the residents regarding the project.

“The Shankumugham ward council has presented a proposal to maintain the property as football ground in a corporation council meet. The proposal which was unanimously passed by the council was send to the district collector along with a letter. Last week, we came to know that collector has directed the Thiruvananthapuram tahsildar to find a suitable property for the construction of the memorial,” said mayor V K Prasanth.

According to the tahsildar, they had started searching for apt locations for the project. “As per the collector’s instruction we began hunt for alternative land for the Sainik Welfare Board’s project. They wanted a plot with road frontage. We are looking for such plots that satisfy the Board’s conditions. As of now district administration has not officially dropped the plan of constructing war memorial at Shankumugham,” he said.

Sudheesh – a resident of Shankumugham said that the local players and the natives are hoping that they will get back their ground.

“It was when officials of district administration came to conduct a survey that the residents came to know about the government proposal for war memorial. We couldn’t imagine converting our ground in to a war memorial. The ground is actively used to conduct volleyball, cricket, football, handball and badminton matches. We protested many times and conveyed our objections to collector and other officials. Through mayor and other revenue officers we came to know that tahsildar is searching alternative land for the project, which is happy news for all of us. We are waiting for an official notification from the department,” said Sudheesh.