The meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi house on Monday was adjourned after an altercation broke out between the ruling BJP and opposition Congress councillors over the issue of irregularities in the civic body's pension scheme for the elderly, widows and physically challenged.
The meeting was marred by a verbal duel and scuffle between the arguing councillors after which both the BJP and the Congress announced that they would stage protests over the issue.
Congress councillors pointed out that due to unearthing of the “scam” in payment of the pension wherein certain number of beneficiaries were found to be drawing double pension from the MCD and the Delhi Government in contravention of the rules, the civic body had stopped giving pension to all beneficiaries under the scheme for the past several months.
As they started protesting and raising slogans, the BJP councillors retorted, leading to a ruckus. In the melee, two women councillors of the Congress and the BJP were seen engaging in a scuffle while several others engaged in heated verbal exchanges.
Later Leader of the House Subhash Arya alleged that Leader of Opposition Jai Kishan Sharma had made derogatory remarks against BJP's Yogender Chandolia who belongs to the Scheduled Castes community. On the other hand, Mr. Sharma alleged that the BJP councillors had “misbehaved” with Muslim woman councillor Nafisa Khatoon during the brawl and stated that the Congress members would stage a dharna at Town Hall on Tuesday to protest against the same.
“We will also meet the President to complain against the behaviour of BJP councillors who misbehaved with and manhandled the Congress councillors when they raised voice against the working of BJP administration,” he added. In response, Mr. Arya stated that the BJP's Scheduled Castes councillors along with the party's SC Morcha members would also stage a march towards the residence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday to register their protest.
