A Corporation council meeting on Saturday unanimously decided to seek explanation from the general secretary of a contractors’ union, owing allegiance to the Left, for alleged unsavoury remarks he made against the councillors. The Mayor said that actions, including blacklisting, will be considered after receiving the explanation.
The issue of the union leader’s comments was raised by United Democratic Front (UDF) councillor Mujeeb Rahman.
“The contractor, in comments to a newspaper, alleged that works in any of the wards cannot be taken up or completed without bribing the councillors concerned. Such attempts at casting aspersions on the character of councillors bring disrepute to the whole Council. If he has any conclusive proof, he should go to the Vigilance and reveal the names of the councillors involved,” Mr. Rahman said.
Councillors across party lines pitched in with their opinion and the discussions over the issue took up much of the time allotted for the Council meeting. All sides agreed on the point that the union leader in question should be punished.
The Opposition councillors also criticised the ruling party for bringing in ‘external forces’ as part of the ‘My City, Beautiful City’ waste management initiative, a veiled reference to the involvement of Thomas Isaac and V. Sivankutty, MLAs, in the programme. They also brought up a recent Facebook post by Dr. Isaac, criticising the officials of the Engineering wing, for delay in giving technical sanction to the aerobic bins.
Councillors of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M] countered this, citing the successful waste management model in Alappuzha, pioneered by Dr. Isaac. They said there was nothing wrong in making use of his expertise.