An all-party meeting held here has resolved to explore all possible avenues to ensure five apartment complexes at Maradu in Kochi are spared from being razed to the ground as ordered by the Supreme Court.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also assured the meeting that all legal options would be exhausted to maintain status quo . If needed, a delegation would be sent to New Delhi for discussions with the Centre. Representatives of various political parties promised full cooperation to the Chief Minister. Any action would be initiated with the full knowledge of the Supreme Court and under its guidance, he added.

The Centre is in a position to invoke special powers to announce concessions in such cases as per provisions of the Environment Protection Act. The Chief Minister hoped that the Centre would exercise these powers. The State has already written to the Centre that it should weigh the threat of severe ecological damage the demolition of the five massive structures could raise and should help the State with handling the grave threat of air and water pollution.

The Chief Minister has already talked to the Union Minister for Environment and Forests and expressed the desire that the latter implead itself in the related case.

Meanwhile, public and political support is pouring in for the 350 families affected by the order, whose hopes are now pinned on the legal steps they are entitled to take in the case, including filing a curative petition in the Supreme Court.

Leaders of all major political fronts, the CPM, Congress and the BJP, have called for a humanitarian approach to solving the crisis and have demanded accountability on the part of the original builders of the apartments.

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