MP and Collector 'Bro' patch up after FB row

Kozhikode: A day after district collector N Prasanth tendered an unconditional apology to Kozhikode MP, M K Raghavan on Facebook, the two met up in a conciliatory meeting here on Monday and decided to bury the hatchet.

The meeting took place at the residence of Janata Dal (United) leader M P Veerendrakumar.

After the meeting, Raghavan made a Facebook post in which he said that he looked forward to working together with the young district collector.

"I would like to work together with Prasanth who has many innovative ideas towards implementing them in a more productive manner to the people of Kozhikode," Raghavan said.

The public spat between the two started last Wednesday after Raghavan accused the collector of deliberately delaying the development works implemented using his MP funds by repeatedly ordering re-inspections. Raghavan demanded an apology (mappu in Malayalam) from the collector for which the collector responded by posting a map of Kunnamkulam. An infuriated Raghavan rushed to Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday and complained to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and even threatened legal action.

The collector tendered an unconditional apology to the MP through a Facebook post on Sunday night in which he said that he didn't mean to insult the MP.

Raghavan in his reply post over Facebook on Monday said that he totally agreed with the stand taken by the collector that official matters should be taken forward as per the law.

"I had written to the collector on June 16 raising the issue of timely implementation of MPLADS projects as part of discharging my duty of a people's representative. I hope that I would get a reply for the letter and steps would be taken to avoid delays in utilization of MPLADS funds," Raghavan said.

He ended the FB post by thanking chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, former chief minister Oommen Chandy, M P Veerendrakumar, P V Chandran and former MLA M V Shreyams Kumar for intervening on the issue.

Meanwhile, Congress mouthpiece Veekshanam made a scathing attack against N Prasanth through its editorial on Monday saying that the collector had utmost contempt for democracy and people's representatives.

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