Decision taken with Opposition approval

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The decision to erect the District Planning Committee (DPC) headquarters on the District Panchayat campus at Pattom was taken with the full approval of the Opposition CPM members at a meeting held on May 21, District Panchayat president Remani P Nair said on Saturday.Addressing a press conference a day after the CPM disrupted the foundation-stone laying ceremony for the new building, Remani P Nair produced the minutes of the May 21 meeting at which the said decision was taken according to her. Friday’s violence at the venue was ‘’politically motivated,’’ she alleged and said that the minutes would be circulated to all members at the next meeting of the Council.‘’If the opposition parties were against the decision, they could have said it then or written a dissenting note. The Council had not received any prior notice about it except for a news item which appeared in a television channel the day before the ceremony,’’ she said. ‘’The protesters, just moments before the function, informed us that they were going to block the gate. They said they would have to be arrested and removed before the ministers were allowed inside,’’ she said.  Remani P Nair said that the panchayat had decided to shift the location for effective implementation of the decentralisation process and providing easier access to the public. ‘’The stone was laid at Kudappanakkunnu one-and-a-half years ago; then why did the then administration fail in constructing the office?’’ she asked. The CPM versionCPM district secretary Kadakampally Surendran alleged on Saturday that it was the UDF members who instigated the violence. He demanded their arrest claiming that they had attacked people who were protesting in a democratic manner. ‘’The LDF demand is that  the office should be set up on the allocated 50 cents of land on the Collectorate premises at Kudappanakkunu. Using the power they possess now, the UDF is trying to frame LDF leaders and people’s representatives in fabricated cases,’’ he said. The UDF has sought the help of goons to destroy public property and photographs of their atrocities have already appeared in the media, he said in a statement. Unless the UDF withdraws from the move to protect the goons, the LDF would proceed with stringent protests, he said.