LDF councillors staged a protest at the Kochi Corporation council meeting on Thursday demanding the resignation of Mayor Soumini Jain.
Holding the Mayor responsible for the reported maladministration and flooding of the city on October 21, the bypoll day, the Opposition members wanted her to step down.
The councillors displayed banners in the council hall calling for the resignation of Ms. Jain.
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Leading the charge against the civic authorities, LDF leader K.J. Antony said the administration had failed in all aspects of governance. The incapability of the civic administration invited the wrath of the general public as well as the Kerala High Court. The court even observed that it might have to recommend dismissal of the corporation for its failure to solve waterlogging in the city, Mr. Antony said.
Kochi lacked a drainage plan, which would have helped in tackling flooding. The administration even failed to make scientific interventions to solve the perennial issue of waterlogging. The authorities could not even constitute a special purpose vehicle for the operation of roll on-roll off ferries, he alleged.
Mr. Antony said even Ms. Jain’s party colleagues wanted her to go. Ms. Jain has become persona non grata not Kochi residents alone but for her party colleagues too. The factional feud in the Congress has resulted in the total collapse of the administration, he alleged.
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Ms. Jain had returned to Kochi on Thursday morning to preside over the council meeting after a meeting with the party leadership in Thiruvananthapuram. The meeting was convened to discuss the campaign for her removal. LDF councillors Benedict Fernandez and K.J. Prakashan also criticised the regime for its failures.
This was the first meeting of the council after flooding and the bypoll. After the three councillors completed their speeches, LDF councillors moved out of their seats to the podium and started sloganeering.
As the LDF councillors refused to heed her suggestion that the council proceedings be allowed to continue, the Mayor dispersed the council meeting after declaring the day’s agenda passed. The Opposition councillors later held a sit-in outside her chamber.