THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘I am aiming a corruption free administration. Age is not considered as a determining factor of maturity for administration. Those criticizing me in the name of age is because they are jealous of my post. Will reply with developmental activities and not by words.’ These are the words of Arya Rajendran soon after taking charge as the youngest mayor of the country. However, from the beginning there were corruption controversies against her.

She was lauded across the country for her post. The CPM also hyped Arya’s appointment giving the message that youngsters were handed over the administration. But what awaited the mayor was a volley of corruption allegations. The Arya Rajendran-led governing body has come up with the biggest appointment controversies India has seen starting from Attukal Pongala.

Attukal Pongala Controversy
The first controversy was in the incident of taking tipper lorries for rent in connection with the cleaning drive of Attukal Pongala. The devotees had offered pongala at their homes following covid protocol when the pandemic was at its peak. The allegation in corporation documents is that 21 tipper lorries were taken for rent in the name of removing garbage after the pongala. An amount of Rs 3,57,800 was spent to pay rent for the lorries.

A bill of Rs 50,000 was made in the name of buying parotta and chicken for the cleaning employees on the same day. When it stoked a controversy, passing of the bill was stopped.

When the pongala controversy strengthened, she came to the fore. She justified that the corporation removed 28 loads of garbage after the pongala and Rs 3,57,800 was spent for it. The first decision was to offer pongala in the temple premises with only 5000 people. 21 lorries were arranged as a precautionary measure and rent was sanctioned. It was decided later to offer pongala at homes. Arya Rajendran explained that it was decided to use this lorry to remove general waste along with Pongala waste.
Indian Youth Congress state secretary advocate Veena S Nair had complained to the chief minister. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan assigned special secretary of the local self-government department to investigate and report on the issue but no action was taken.

Scheduled caste fund fraud
The next corruption was that the amount allotted for marriage and education schemes for Scheduled Castes was diverted to other bank accounts. The investigation of the case handed over to the crime branch revealed that a fraud of Rs 1.04 crore had taken place. However, the audit reports hinted that more than this amount was swindled. It is alleged that this could not be found because the police did not investigate properly. The fraud took place in the benefits for 10 schemes. Most of the fraud took place in classroom and landless rehabilitation schemes. It was discovered that the fraud was done without applications, through fake applications and through the fraudsters’ own account numbers.

It was alleged that Rahul, clerk of the Scheduled Caste Office and the main accused in the fraud case was not properly interrogated by the investigating team as part of the ongoing investigation. It was found that money had been transferred to the accounts of 35 people, but no investigation was conducted. The failure to find the laptop and mobile phone used by the accused to commit the fraud was also a setback. In addition, there was a possibility that people related to DYFI and CPM could be included in the list of accused, so there was a lot of political pressure for the investigation. Those who were under suspension have returned to service.

Building number fraud
The fraud was committed by temporary employees of the corporation using officials’ password and user name. It is easy to register information of the building in Sanjaya software and examine from any computer. Only the officials’ username and password are needed for it. However, digital signature to give permission can be given only from the computer of the corporation.

In the fraud committed in Kesavadasapuram, the information was registered and examined by Beena Kumari and Sandhya, who were held, together. They committed the crime using their own mobile. However, permission was given after registering the digital sign by an official of the corporation office who knows the username and password of the revenue officer. Some temporary employees were kept aloof for using the computer of the corporation for the fraud. There were announcements that the investigation was handed over to the police and that strict action will be taken against the guilty, but nothing happened.

Tax fraud
This corruption is where the money remitted by the public in the offices for various matters including taxes were swindled by the officials without depositing it in the bank. 26.74 lakh from Nemom zonal office, 1.09 lakh from Attipra zonal and 5.12 lakh from Sreekaryam zonal were lost. The report of the internal investigation commission appointed by the corporation made guilty the officials who were in the front to bring out the tax fraud. The report was prepared by making revenue inspector Sudheer Kumar of Nemom Zonal, Sunil Kumar, the revenue inspector of Sreekariyam Zonal, and Akhila Chandran, the cashier of Aitipra Zonal, as criminals.

Sunil Kumar, who was in the front to expose the fraud, was the first to discover that the collected tax money was not reaching the account. Then the fraud was discovered during the local fund audit. Sudheer Kumar gave a statement to the police against the fraud committed by Shanthi, superintendent at Nemom Zonal, on the instructions of the corporation secretary. Sudheer was ready for this when many other officials were reluctant to testify against Shanthi. She was not accused in any previous police investigation. However, the internal investigation commission of the municipality made the officials guilty without even recording the statement. The allegation is that the corporation is trying to protect the real accused by making the plaintiffs the defendants.

PWD road for private hotel
The next issue was renting parking space to a private hotel on the busy MG Road in the capital city. The corporation’s decision to allocate space for parking was highly controversial. The Public Works Department Road was given to a private hotel at a monthly rent of Rs 5,000. The traffic advisory committee led by Mayor Arya Rajendran has decided to lease the road to a newly started private hotel in the Devaswom Board building opposite the Ayurveda College on MG Road. The corporation secretary and the hotel owner made an agreement for this and signed an agreement. Even though the government is not allowed to allocate the road for parking under the Road Safety Act, the Public Works Department leased the road to a private hotel as if it were its own land.

When the incident sparked a controversy, Public Works Department Minister Mohammad Riyas intervened. The road department sought a report from the executive engineer and canceled the agreement.

Will the letter trap Mayor
Mystery shrouds on the controversial letter being sent to CPM district secretary by the mayor seeking a list of applicants for temporary posts in the corporation. Though the mayor lodged a complaint with the chief minister seeking a probe on the source of the letter, she and the party are not saying whether the letter is fake.

Soon after meeting the chief minister, the mayor convened a press meet and said let them probe and find whether the letter is fake. Party state secretary M V Govindan had also said that backdoor appointment is not party’s manner and let the investigation prove how the letter was formed.

The first thing is to find out whether the letter is fame. She told media that she does not about the letter being circulated and is not signed by her. Her complaint to the police has demanded to find the source of the letter