DMK versus DMK at Alandur municipality

By G Saravanan
Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on July 1, 2010:

CHENNAI: In what could have been an open embarrassment for the DMK party at Alandur municipality, members of the party on Wednesday walked out of the monthly council meet protesting the callous attitude of officials in attending to the civic issues.

Cutting across party lines, the DMK councillors and members from its arch rival AIADMK lambasted the engineers and the DMK-led civic body for failing to repair the battered roads and attend to sewer overflow complaints, which had forced many members to keep away from visiting their wards.

It all started when the Alandur municipality chairman Durai Velu of the DMK said that several projects were pending in the locality and urged the officials to expedite them.Reacting seriously to the chairman’s views, vice chairman N Chandran retorted that the DMK members were irritated with the non-cooperation of officials and staged a walkout along with 11 councillors of the party and were later joined by 12 other members. However, five DMK councillors, including the chairman, stayed in the House.

Subsequently, the seven AIADMK councillors and a lone DMDK councillor raised slogans criticising the municipality and said that the public of Alandur were put to severe hardship due to the poor performance of officials.The councillors also insisted that the chairman ensure that the municipal engineer N Mahesan participated in the monthly council meetings, during which the public grievances and upcoming projects were discussed.
Despite the absence of quorum, the chairman conducted the council that lasted for less than 20 minutes and passed 35 resolutions.Municipal commissioner N Manoharan remained a mute spectator to the whole drama.