‘Opposition councillors’ in school uniforms jeered at and heckled a young ‘mayor’ as he made a statement in the council on Friday on the effectiveness of the cleanliness drive held in the city.
The council proceedings seemed no different on Friday when students of some city schools assumed the role of mayor and other civic representatives for the day as part of Children’s Day celebrations. It was after a quarter century that the students’ council was being organised in Kochi.
Donning the customary gown, Sanal Simon, a Class 10 student of Assisi Vidyaniketan School, Chembumukku, controlled the council proceedings as the student mayor.
Aravind S. Nair of Bhavan’s Adarsha Vidyalaya, Kakkanad, raised the concerns of city dwellers in his role as the leader of the opposition councillors. He alleged that the mayor was keen only on implementing projects that could win media attention.
Aswathi Anil, a Plus One student of Government Higher Secondary School, Edappally, who donned the role of deputy mayor, lauded the role of residents’ associations in carrying out the cleaning drive. The students’ council discussed the agenda of cleanliness to coincide with the campaign that is being currently undertaken in the city. Around 80 students from select schools participated in the event.
As the student civic representatives debated on the topic, the real civic representatives including Kochi Mayor Tony Chammany, Deputy Mayor B. Bhadra and standing committee chairpersons including Soumini Jain, R. Thyagarajan, Essy Joseph and Ratnamma Raju watched the proceedings from the sidelines.
