Mayor lambasts DYFI activists for staging violent protest

Youth activists barge into Chammany’s office calling for his resignation

DYFI activists stage a protest in the chamber of Mayor Tony Chammany on Monday. Photo: Special Arrangement

Mayor Tony Chammany has asked the CPI(M) and DYFI leaderships to make their stand clear on the vigilance probe against Opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan and former Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac.

Airing his protest against the DFYI activists for ransacking his office demanding his resignation this afternoon, Mr. Chammany said the organisations were adopting double standards on those facing vigilance probes. “How could the DYFI activists, who had no problem with Mr. Achuthanandan and Mr. Isaac continuing in office, find fault with the Mayor and the chairman of the Town Planning Standing committee alone,” asked Mr. Chammany.

Mr. Chammany alleged that a group of 50 DYFI activists barged into his office shouting slogans and manhandled and abused women councillors. They attempted to intimidate the Mayor and behaved in an unruly manner. Four CPI(M) councillors, Sreejith, Mahesh, Mumtaz Teacher and Renish and CPI councillor C.A. Shakkeer were in the mob who stormed into the office, he said.

The agitation by way of disrupting the functioning of the office of the Mayor is unacceptable and deplorable. Every organisation has the right to stage protests. However, such protests should be carried out in a democratic manner. The violence unleashed by DYFI activists in the Mayor’s office has no parallels in the State, he said.

The mode of agitation revealed the political fascism and intolerance practised by the CPI(M) and the DYFI. The two organisations were not even ready to wait for the verdict from the Vigilance Court, Thrissur, which had ordered the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to look into the complaint against the Mayor and five others. The corporation council had also asked the State government to conduct a vigilance probe into the allegations of corruption related to the permission for display of advertisements on lampposts, he said.

Mr. Chammany said he had provided information to the police who took his statement following the incidents.

DYFI district secretary M. Anilkumar said the organisation would continue its agitation till the Mayor stepped down. The Youth Congress too had staged similar agitations in the council earlier. DYFI activists reached the corporation office on Monday to lay siege to the Town Planning Committee office. The activists moved to the Mayor’s chamber on learning that the Town Planning committee chairman was there, he said. He denied the charges of the Mayor that the activists manhandled councillors.