Kochi corporation to take over Kokers Theatre

Kochi: The council meeting has also decided to take over the 60 cents of land in west Kochi housing the Kokers Theatre which was leased out for 30 years by the local body. Though the lease period ended earlier, the civic body had failed to reclaim the property worth crores of rupees. Replying to opposition leader K.J. Antony who sought immediate measures to reclaim the land and the building, Mayor Soumini Jain said that acquisition procedure would be initiated after getting the legal opinion.

“If the acquisition is delayed indefinitely for collecting the default lease amount of Rs 33 lakh from the theatre owner, the prime property will be permanently lost for the local body,” K.J Antony said. Deputy mayor T.J. Vinod, tax appeal committee chairman K.V.P. Krishna Kumar and other ruling councillors also supported the opposition leader following which the mayor made the announcement on theatre acquisition. Over the last few years, the corporation has been trying to reclaim the land but failed. There was even a plan to construct a multiplex at the spot after the takeover.

The corporation council meeting also witnessed heated arguments within the ruling bench over the removal of unauthorised wayside vendors. Though health committee chairperson V.K. Minimol and works committee chairman P.M. Haris stressed the need to remove the street vendors, A.B. Sabu, welfare committee chairman opposed it. “While other cities and towns in the state have wayside vending, why it shouldn’t be permitted in Kochi alone,” asked Mr Sabu, an office bearer of street vendors’ association.

Replying to the debate, Ms Jain said that necessary steps would be taken after looking into the issue. Meanwhile the corporation has also decided to to terminate the agreement with contractor of the boat ‘Pappy’ operating in Fort Kochi – Vypeen route and will soon ink a new pact directly with the boat owner.