Bedlam at corporation council meet

DMK councillors question guidelines for ‘best corporation award’

August 29, 2014 02:08 pm | Updated 02:08 pm IST - TIRUCHI:

Noisy scenes marred the proceedings of the urgent meeting of the Tiruchirappalli City Corporation convened here on Thursday, following heated exchanges between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) councillors over the ‘best corporation award’ given to the civic body by the State government recently.

The meeting came to an abrupt end when Mayor A. Jaya left the meeting in a huff, amidst unruly scenes, with Commissioner V.P.Thandapani. The trouble began soon after the meeting commenced, when M.Venkatraj (DMK) questioned the propriety of the selection of Tiruchi city as the ‘best corporation’ in the State and questioned the guidelines for the selection.

He also sought details about the projects implemented by the corporation in the past three years which had enabled the civic body to qualify for the award.

Several DMK councillors came out in support complaining about the poor basic amenities in their wards. Ms.Jaya maintained that no councillor had any right to question the decision of the Chief Minister.

With the AIADMK members making counter offensive, chaotic scenes prevailed. At one stage, the Mayor ordered all the Opposition councillors to leave the hall.

The situation took a turn for the worse when AIADMK councillor Bhupendran used a derogatory term to ask the DMK councillors to get out of the hall.

This triggered vociferous protests and DMK councillors rushed towards the Mayor’s podium, demanding an apology from the AIADMK councillor. The DMK members squatted in front of the Mayor and urged her to maintain the decorum of the council. The meeting came to an abrupt end as the AIADMK councillors left the council hall after declaring that all resolutions in the agenda as passed. However, councillors of the DMK, MDMK, DMDK and Congress resorted to a sit-in inside the council hall in protest. They withdrew the stir by evening after Mr.Thandapani held talks with them.

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