Councillors of the Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam staged a walk out from the Tiruchirapalli City Corporation Council meeting on Monday protesting the suspension of three of their colleagues for two meetings by Mayor A. Jaya during last month’s council meet.
The three councillors, D. Ramamurthy, T. Muthuselvam, and V. Leela, were suspended for two meetings after they pulled down microphones at the council meeting last month. All three had turned up for Monday’s urgent meeting, provoking vociferous protests from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam councillors.
J. Srinivasan and other AIADMK members were on their feet demanding that the three councillors be sent out as they had been suspended. Ms. Jaya insisted that the three councillors leave the council hall.
DMK member K.S. Nagarajan defended his party colleagues saying that they had only tried to raise people’s issues. The former Deputy Mayor M. Anbazhagan of the DMK said though the incidents that took place at last month’s meeting was regrettable, the suspension of the three councillors for two meetings was unacceptable.
The AIADMK members insisted that the Mayor’s order be enforced. Congress councillor R. Hema, who came out in support of the suspended DMK members, was shouted down by the AIADMK councillors.
The three councillors, who stood their ground for some time, later decided to leave the council hall and Mr. Anbazhagan led a walk out of his party members condemning the suspension.
The meeting came to a quick end soon after as all the items on the agenda were declared to have been adopted.
Important among the approved resolutions were the corporation decision to hire about 475 workers on a temporary basis for 120 days for carrying out up anti-mosquito operations and environment development works in the city. One ‘domestic breeding checker’ would be appointed for every 2,000 people in the city.