A verbal duel broke out between Suramangalam zone chairman S.D. Kalaiamudhan, belonging to the DMK, and the DMK councillors after the former criticised the corporation officials during the council meeting on Friday. Mayor A. Ramachandran presided over the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, senior member Mr. Kalaiamudhan explained about the history of the Salem-Mettur dedicated water supply scheme and how he and former Minister late Veerapandi S. Arumugam struggled to bring this scheme while DMK was in power in 1996–01 and 2006–2011.
Mr. Kalaiamudhan also claimed that during the AIADMK regime, the water scheme work was not carried out properly.
Following this, AIADMK members raised objections, and it created a verbal duel between the DMK and AIADMK councillors. Claiming that the the zone chairman gave wrong information, AIADMK councillors staged a walkout from the meeting.
Mr. Kalaiamudhan said a committee that was formed under his leadership to address the issues in the city’s water supply submitted its report five months ago. But, no action was taken. If the corporation provides ₹50 crore to implement the suggestions made by the committee, drinking water can be supplied on a daily basis. So, the Corporation should sanction ₹20 crore for the first phase.
In the next meeting, the corporation’s officials should report on the action taken on the suggestions. “Without my knowledge, two resolutions regarding the cancellation of a tender for a company conducting home appliance exhibitions in my ward were brought to the council meeting,” Mr. Kalaiamudhan said.
Following this, some DMK councillors raised objections to Mr. Kalaiamudhan’s statement and urged him not to speak about these issues in the council meeting and to tell them directly to the officials or the Mayor.
It led to a verbal duel between Mr. Kalaiamudhan and the DMK members. The Mayor also criticised Mr. Kalaiamudhan for speaking like in public meetings.
Ruling party leader J. Jayakumar, also of DMK, who spoke in support of Mr. Kalaiamudhan stated that some officials are making mistakes because of the opportunity that exists in the corporation. In a democracy, this should be discussed in the meeting, and the mistakes should be corrected.
Replying to Mr. Jayakumar, the Mayor assured him that action will be taken against the officials concerned.
