Corporation to reclaim Stalin office

Published in The New Indian Express, Chennai on December 23, 2011:

Source:http://expressbuzz.com/cities/chennai/corporation-to-reclaim-stalin-office/346108.html

CHENNAI: Irked over the Chennai Corporation’s resolution reclaiming the office premises of Kolathur MLA M K Stalin, members of the Opposition DMK party on Thursday staged a walkout.

When the subject (in a resolution numbering 34) taken up for discussion in the Council, DMK leader in the house, Subash Chandra Bose, raised his hand to speak on the issue.

Though Mayor Saidai S Duraisamy initially declined to allow him to speak and the AIADMK members also created a noisy atmosphere to stop Bose from making any statement on the issue, he got the Mayor’s nod to speak finally.

While Bose was in the process of explaining how the MLA office was allotted to Stalin, R K Nagar MLA P Vetrivel, despite the Mayor’s instruction not to interrupt his speech, questioned the rational behind allocating the office to Stalin.

Vetrivel trained his guns on Bose for speaking about the allocation and even made remarks on Stalin.

With both the Mayor and Vetrivel interrupting Bose from recording the party’s resentment over the cancellation of allotment in the Council, he, along with other DMK councillors, staged a walkout stating that the Council’s decision was due to political animosity. 
When the DMK members were staging a walkout, councillors from the ruling AIADMK booed them and called them ‘cowards.’ 
Later, speaking to reporters, Bose said, “Due to political animosity, the AIADMK-led civic body is planning to retrieve the office and this would deprive the local residents space to share their grievance and complaints with their MLA.” After a 40-minute discussion, the Council gave its nod for reclaiming the site in a voice-vote.

Ready to Work Even from Pavement: Stalin

Ridiculing the Chennai Corporation’s resolution to reclaim his office space in Kolathur, the local MLA and DMK’s treasurer M K Stalin on Thursday said that he didn’t mind working on a pavement for the local people.

In a hard-hitting statement immediately after the passing of resolution at the Chennai Corporation’s Council Meet, Stalin said, “I will keep a table and chair on a platform in the centre of Kolathur constituency and will work from there for the welfare of the people, if I am not allowed to function from the MLA office.”

They (state government) might be thinking that I have no business to attend to the local’s grievances when the government itself is not bothered about people’s concerns, Stalin said in a statement.

He said offices for MLAs in 12 constituencies in Chennai Corporation limit were constructed during the DMK regime and the construction of more become necessary since the number of constituencies increased to 16 after delimitation.

‘The old building remained unused in Jawahar Nagar and Chennai Corporation allowed me to use it after converting it into a full-fledged office’, Stalin said in a statement.

Reacting to the resolution adopted in the Corporation Council cancelling the allotment of an office to him, Stalin said the ruling party was behind the resolution because it could not relish the idea of him visiting the constituency to meet the people.