The entire Opposition councillors belonging to the UDF boycotted the council meeting here on Wednesday over the Mayor’s refusal to grant them permission to discuss some of the contentious agendas listed for the day.
Incidentally, the members of the Congress- Indian Union Muslim League (IUML)- Socialist Janata (Democratic) combine staged their protest only towards the fag end of the council session in the evening. This was after their heated debates with the ruling LDF members for an hour.
Mayor A.K. Premajam, who chaired the meeting, had allowed the lengthy discussion on the topic relating to the sanction given to the Vadakara-based Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society (ULCCS) for constructing a roof over the Corporation’s main office.
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The disagreement between the ruling and opposition councillors forced the Mayor to put the agenda to vote. Subsequently three similar agendas were passed through voting as the LDF had an edge over the UDF by seven votes. Shortly the opposition members staged a boycott when the Mayor went ahead with the remaining items.
The bone of contention was that the ULCCS had been chosen for the contract overlooking the tendering procedures. K.T. Beeran Koya(IUML) who initiated the debate, said such arbitrary procedure would result in a financial loss to the civic body. His party colleague K. Muhammed Ali and P. Kishen Chand (SJ-D) and Vidya Balakrishnan and Zacharia P. Hussain (Congress) supported him. Mr. Ali alleged that the LDF was in cahoots with the ULCCS for awarding the public works. But this was countered by M. Mohanan, T. Sujan and C.P. Musafer Ahamed, all CPI (M), pointing out that ULCCS was an accredited agency by the State government.
Prof. Premajam and the Deputy Mayor P.T. Abdul Latheef said that the IUML councillor had made a baseless charge to block development projects. Later the Superintending Engineering Ajay Ghosh clarified that the government had permitted to award projects to consultants of a government recognised panel. The public works committee had recommended ULCCS for undertaking the project though it was not in the list.
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