Aluva municipality is facing a demand for a Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) probe into alleged irregularities involving a hotel and a computer centre operating from municipal office premises, according to LDF councillors in the municipality.
The opposition councillors have accused the Congress-led municipal administration of failing to act against establishments they allege were using municipal space without proper authorisation. Their allegations concern the now-closed Kudumbashree Janakeeya Hotel and a computer centre operating from a municipal building.
The LDF alleged that the hotel was being run by private individuals while presenting itself as a Kudumbashree unit. Councillors further claimed that the establishment did not have proper documentation and had received free access to space, water and electricity. The claims have not been independently established in the report.
The hotel was launched during the Covid period under an LDF government initiative to provide affordable meals. Opposition leader Shyam Padmanabhan said its closure had affected people who depended on it. The LDF has demanded that the municipality implement an earlier unanimous council decision to invite tenders for reopening the facility.
According to the councillors, delays in issuing the tender were also depriving the financially struggling municipality of potential revenue. The demand places the municipal administration’s management of public premises and civic facilities at the centre of the dispute, including whether such spaces are being used under documented agreements and with appropriate payment for utilities.
The opposition has separately demanded the eviction of a computer centre that it alleges is occupying a municipal building without paying rent or utility charges. The report does not specify the centre’s operator, the period of occupation or the amount of rent and utility dues alleged by the councillors.
The LDF councillors also alleged that decisions were inserted into the minutes of public works standing committee meetings without the knowledge of committee members. Padmanabhan referred to similar alleged alterations to council minutes in the past. These claims remain allegations made by the opposition, and the report does not record a response from the municipal administration or the alleged establishments.
The immediate demands from the LDF are a VACB investigation, implementation of the council’s tender decision for the hotel, and action concerning the computer centre’s alleged occupation of municipal premises. The next formal step would be the municipality’s response to these demands and any decision by the competent authority on whether to order an inquiry.
