People kept in the dark over Thiruvananthapuram Corporation's projects

Thiruvananthapuram: Yet another Thiruvananthapuram Corporation initiative is struggling for want of effective campaigning. ‘The Museum of Habitual Errors’, an installation of thousands of plastic pet bottles at ‘Go Green Expo’, was supposed to be ready by Monday evening, but without enough number of volunteers, the deadline had to be extended. Though the Corporation had promised to get volunteers from colleges, there were only around ten people building the installation on Sunday. By Monday afternoon, there were 30 people including 8 Corporation personnel working here, but the initiative needed at least hundred volunteers.

During smart city polling too, there were signs of inadequate campaigning. Being loaded with various responsibilities, corporation officials were left with little time to focus on publicity, according to a Corporation official. “There is a need for a dedicated PR person. We have to take care of everything from start to end, and are not able to focus on PR,” the official says. The Corporation has submitted a representation to the state government regarding the appointment of a PR person, according to Mayor V.K. Prashanth. “The strength at the Corporation needs to be increased, and a vacancy for a PR person needs to be created,” he says. The Mayor asked a couple of colleges for volunteers on Monday.

This was supposed to be a social participatory project conceived by an architects’ group called Recyclebin, the success of which depended on the number of citizens joining in to build it. But with just ten people on Sunday, many volunteers like Babitha P S decided to stay over and work till the wee hours of Monday. The installation’s first design needed at least 80,000 pet bottles, but only over 6000 bottles could be collected from the people. “We had thought of the possibility of there being not enough bottles. So we had a plan B with a different filling strategy,” says Ganga Dileep C, cofounder, Recyclebin.