more-in The Kozhikode Municipal Corporation has decided to punish three officials for their alleged role in causing discrepancies in the contract for setting up street lights along six roads in the city. Corporation Secretary Mrinmayi Joshi, in her report, pointed out that section clerk Sujith, superintendent M. Sathyababu and deputy secretary K. Premanandan had been careless, resulting in some major differences between the expression of interest and the contract in the case. It was a clerical error by the section clerk, which the superintendent passed without cross checking. The deputy secretary signed the contract without cross examining it. “The explanations provided by the three officials were found unsatisfactory and hence, they will be subject to punishment as per Kerala Service Rules, which will bar their increment for one year without cumulative effect,” Ms. Joshi said. Revenue Officer M. Njanaprakash, who was on leave at the time of signing of the contract, was let off with a warning. The officials would be given 15 days’ time to give a reply, which would be considered before the decision is implemented, the Secretary added. Noisy scenes The council meeting on Wednesday was noisy right from the start as the Opposition was against Mayor Thottathil Raveendran’s attempt to settle the issue at the beginning by asking the Corporation Secretary to explain the penal measures taken against the officials found guilty in the case. The Opposition claimed that it was against the council procedures to do so before the adjournment motion was presented. After a lot of deliberation and shouting, the Opposition relented and allowed the Secretary to make her statement. However, noisy scenes continued as the Secretary could not provide a copy of the report to the councillors immediately. The arguments escalated to such an extend that the Mayor walked out of the council. When the session resumed after 30 minutes, the Mayor read out a copy of the Secretary’s report. However, BJP councillors demanded that the contract be cancelled and walked out in protest against the nominal punishment issued to the officials found guilty. Demand for probe Congress councillor P.M. Niyas pointed out that since the punishment was without cumulative effect, the officials would not have any major loss. IUML councillor C. Abdurahman demanded that an external agency should conduct investigation into the issue. The Mayor refused the UDF’s request for further discussion on the issue, upon which the UDF too walked out in protest.

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