The Corporation council meeting on Tuesday witnessed acrimonious scenes with councillors throwing sandals, water bottles, and papers during a discussion to approve the budget for the next financial year. When the councillors of the UDF and the ruling LDF trooped to the centre of the council hall and started shouting, Mayor K. Chandrika adjourned the meeting for the day.
The din started after 5 p.m. as the council was about to wind up the day’s proceedings, when UDF councillors led by Johnson Joseph and Maheswaran Nair raised objection to the Mayor’s decision to allow Congress councillor Pushpa Latha to speak for more than the allotted 10 minutes.
The UDF councillors stepped to the centre of the hall and entered into an argument with the Mayor. As LDF councillors too joined them, chaos reigned the hall for a few minutes.
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Suddenly sandals, bottles, and papers were thrown to the side where the LDF councillors stood and this resulted in a minor scuffle between the ruling party and Opposition councillors. Though the Mayor appealed for calm, the councillors refused to yield and tempers ran high for about 15 minutes, which led to the adjournment.
Later in the day, LDF parliamentary party leader V.S. Padmakumar gave a written complaint to the Mayor seeking action against UDF councillors Maheswaran Nair, Sri Rekha, Sarasamma, Harikumar, and Suresh Kumar for throwing sandals and bottles.
Earlier during the discussion, solid- waste management and frequent disruption in the supply of drinking water dominated the session. The UDF members said none of the schemes in the current budget were implemented and there were no specific schemes in the next year’s budget to solve garbage and traffic problems. Budget discussion will resume on Wednesday.
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