THIRUVOTRIYUR MUNICIPALITY: Municipal chairman, councillors trade charges

Picture courtesy: dailymirror.lk

By G Saravanan

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai, on September 15, 2010:

CHENNAI: The emergency meeting of the Thiruvotriyur Municipality on Tuesday witnessed chaotic scenes after opposition AIADMK councillors and chairman Jayaraman traded bribery charges in the open house.

Tense moments prevailed after a ruling DMK councillor S Soundararajan (Ward-48) rushed towards the opposition leader K Kuppan (AIADMK) for asking too many questions about the functioning of the civic body. However, timely intervention by other DMK councillors prevented any untoward incident.

The last meeting of the civic body held on August 31 was postponed due to lack of quorum after ruling DMK councillors walked out en masse in protest against the chairman’s attitude.

Within minutes after the meeting began, Kuppan was on his feet lambasting the civic body’s poor administration and its failure to attend to basic amenities.

Refuting his allegations, the chairman said the civic body had completed several public welfare projects,including laying of roads, in the last few months.Irked over the chairman’s claim, AIADMK councillor R Manikumar asked the chairman to show the completed roads in his ward-43 and said the roads in his wards were badly damaged and unmotorable.

Baffled by the counter-attack by a councillor, the chairman asked, “how the newly-laid roads would remain perfect if you (Manikumar) forcibly collect bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from contractors.”

Supporting his colleague, Kuppan challenged the chairman to clarify the issue of forcible kickbacks collected by councillors.

With the debate turning more ugly, DMK councillors forced the chairman to pass resolutions laid on the table for the day.

Despite the raging debate among the members on the bribery issue, the council meet passed about 92 resolutions without discussing any.