Kerala local body polls: Fed up with neglect, Mundamveli apartment residents to field own candidate

Tired of leaking roofs and deteriorating living conditions, residents of the P&T Apartment Complex at Mundamveli have decided to boycott candidates of all major political fronts contesting from the Mundamveli East division of the Kochi Corporation and instead field their own representative.

Abhilash P. Parameswaran, president of the P&T Apartment Owners Association, will file his papers on Thursday.

“We have had enough. With over 300 votes in the twin apartments alone, we have decided to field our own candidate to voice our grievances on the right platforms,” says Saritha Madhavan, secretary of the apartment owners association.

Abhilash P. Parameswaran, president of the P&T Apartment Owners Association, is set to file nomination as an Independent from the Mundamveli East division.
| Photo Credit:
H.VIBHU

The Kochi Corporation relocated 77 families from the erstwhile P&T Colony near Perandoor Canal, Kadavanthra, in the heart of the city after the colony was inundated during every major spell of rain. They were moved to the apartment complex built by the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) in January 2024. Ironically, the apartments began leaking during the first showers in February that year.

Mr. Parameswaran says families in the apartment complex never received support from the division councillor since they moved to Mundamveli from the Gandhi Nagar division of the Corporation. Mary Calista Prakashan was the councillor of the Mundamveli division in the last council. The division was bifurcated into two in delimitation – Mundamveli and Mundamveli East. While Ms. Prakashan is contesting from Mundamveli, her husband K.J. Prakashan is contesting from Mundamveli East, both as LDF candidates.

“Though we lived in impoverished conditions in P&T Colony, we witnessed Kochi’s development from close quarters. Since moving here, however, we have seen no progress, only waste management issues, waterlogging, and in our case, leaking apartments. A division councillor can achieve so much, and our relocation from a colony to these apartments is proof of that, as it was the result of the determination of former Gandhi Nagar councillor Poornima Narayanan,” says Mr. Parameswaran.

As families demanded a permanent solution to the leaking apartments, the GCDA and IIT Madras entered into an agreement in June appointing the latter as consultant to address the structural issues plaguing the Mundamveli complex. The agreement paved the way for the premier institute issuing a building stability certificate, a prerequisite for undertaking truss work sanctioned by the district administration and to be executed by the Kochi Corporation using the development funds of MLA K.J. Maxy.

IIT Madras was given four months to study and recommend lasting solutions to ensure the long-term sustainability of the apartment complex. A regional-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in July, convened to review the progress of various projects in central Kerala, decided that renovation of the Mundamveli apartments would begin once IIT Madras submitted its report in September.

“However, we have not received any updates from IIT Madras since September. Even the truss work, which was meant to be a temporary fix for the leakage, has not started,” says Ms. Madhavan.