Heated arguments between a group of AIADMK councillors and Mayor Visalakshi Appukutty, who is also from AIADMK, over the move underway to privatise the solid waste management (SWM) project in select 30 wards, marred the proceedings at the Corporation council meeting held here on Friday.
As the opposition mounted, the Mayor abruptly ended the meeting.
This move too was heavily criticised by the councillors who voiced their dissent on the issue.
The opposition councillors were seen thoroughly enjoying the differences among the ruling party members.
S.R. Jayakumar of ward 39 a senior functionary of AIADMK, was the first one to question the move being initiated by the administration to hand over the SWM project to private service providers in wards 16 to 45 in the chronological order.
“At a time when the Chief Minister was fighting against privatisation concept like raising opposition to the Centre’s decision to disinvest share of Neyveli Lignite Corporation, it is sad to see the AIADMK administration in Tirupur Corporation trying to promote privatisation,” he said.
A host of other AIADMK councillors, including veteran C. Ganesh (ward 24), came to the support of Mr. Jayakumar.
They stated that handing over of the SWM project to private service providers through tendering would result in the women SHG members, who were presently handling the collection of garbage, losing their job.
Mr. Jayakumar asked the Mayor whether the move to privatise the project had government sanction.
For this, Ms. Appukutty claimed that 43 out of the 49 AIADMK councillors supported the initiative.
Terming the Mayor's argument as ‘baseless’, Mr. Jayakumar and a few other councillors challenged the Mayor to put the matter into vote right in the floor of the council and prove her claims.
Walkout
Earlier, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam councillors walked out from the meeting over various issues including the move to privatise the SWM project, selective eviction of encroachers in the city limits and increasing mosquito menace.
