Kochi: Rift between the Maradu municipality and a technical team headed by sub-collector Snehil Kumar Singh over the demolition of four illegally-constructed apartment complexes in Kerala has come out in the open with the civic body's chief accusing the latter of non-cooperation.
Municipal chairperson T H Nadeera told Onmanorama on Monday that Snehil Kumar has not been passing on information regarding the demolition of the flat complexes right from the start of the process.
The Fort Kochi sub-collector was appointed special officer in charge of Maradu flat demolition in September after the Supreme Court ordered the Kerala government to raze the buildings built in violation of Coastal Regulation Zone rules.
“We don't know what decisions they have taken or what they are going to do. We came to know about the decision to change the timing of demolition only through media reports,” Nadeera said.
She said though the councillors had requested the district administration to give them a proper information about the process of demolition and the precautions to be taken, nothing has been done.
“The people come to us and share their concerns with us. As people's representatives, we have a responsibility to answer them. The sub-collector may be convinced that no damage would happen to neighbouring buildings. But neither the people nor their representatives have that confidence,” Nadeera said.
Meanwhile, a team assigned by Snehil Kumar has started visiting the houses near the soon-to-be-demolished Alfa Serene twin towers and distributed a pamphlet that describes the guidelines to be followed during the demolition. The pamphlet is issued in the name of Maradu municipality. However, Nadeera said the councillors were not informed about it.
The demolition team consists of revenue, municipal and police personnel.
She said not only the sub-collector but the municipal secretary and municipal engineer have also not shared the matters related to the demolition to councillors.
She said there was no clarity on the clauses of the insurance coverage for houses near the flats to be demolished. “The sub-collector has said the insurance firm will compensate the losses in case f damage as per existing market value. But we have not received any written documents regarding this,” Nadeera said.
“People are anxious. They haven't got a reply from the district administration as to whether their houses would survive the blast,” she said.
She said the district administration may be assuming that the councillors are against the demolition of the flats. “We are not against the Supreme Court order. We could have helped the government execute its plan smoothly had we been kept in the loop,” she said.
Snehil Kumar rubbished the allegations, saying his works have been transparent.
“First priority is the public. We need to inform the public. I don't have any problem with the councillors. I have been very transparent with them,” he told reporters while coming out of a meeting at the municipality office regarding the demolition.
In October, an emergency council meeting of Maradu municipality had refused to give approval to the decision taken by the technical committee to appoint two companies – Edifice Engineering and Vijay Steels – to carry out the demolition. The municipal council turned down the proposal citing the matter was not included in the agenda. However, the government went ahead and signed an agreement with the two companies.
