The Kozhikode Corporation office has been witnessing much drama recently over the Sanchaya password leak issue. If it is not the employees staging a protest demanding that the suspension of their colleagues be revoked, it is the Opposition councillors staging a sit-in demanding a fair investigation into the scam.
The furore over the issue has escalated to such an extent that Opposition councillors waited a full day to gherao the Mayor on Saturday, while she, as well as chairpersons of most standing committees were a no-show at the corporation office.
All hell broke loose on June 17, as media reports brought out a deep-rooted scam connected to the Sanchaya building tax assessment software used in the corporation as well as most local bodies in the State. It was revealed that the login details of some employees in the revenue section of the corporation were leaked out to allot numbers to a large number of buildings, including a few that were unauthorised or deemed unfit. Some officials revealed that they had, in fact, alerted the Corporation Secretary about the scam around six months ago, and that she had failed to take appropriate action then. They pointed to the involvement of middlemen in matters of the corporation and hinted at the existence of a lobby they were part of, along with some councillors, former employees, and real estate giants.
