Demanding special council meetings has become the go to strategy for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation to corner the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), with the fourth such meeting to be held within the past two months scheduled on Thursday. The BJP demanded the meeting to raise the Corporation’s alleged failure in effective waste management in the city.
As per the rules, if one-third of the councillors issue a notice for a special council, it has to be convened. In case the ruling party declines this demand, those who issued the notice can still convene a special council meeting and pass resolutions. This clause, which was used by opposition parties sparingly in the past, is now being used frequently by the BJP.
On June 18, a special council meeting was held following the BJP’s demand for a discussion on its allegations of corruption in sanitation activities held as part of the Attukal Pongala this year.
On July 9, a special council meeting was convened to discuss the process of selection of beneficiaries for the various welfare initiatives as part of the city Corporation's people's plan project.
On July 22 this year, a special council meeting was held following the BJP’s demand to discuss the alleged misappropriation of funds meant for beneficiaries for educational and other purposes under a sub-office of the Department of Scheduled Caste Development functioning out of the city Corporation office. On February 2, a special council meeting discussed the issue regarding revision projects for the year.
Barring the council meeting on the alleged fund misappropriation, in which a decision to demand inquiry by a special investigation team was taken, hardly any concrete decision was taken in any of the meetings. In some of the special council meetings, the LDF did manage to turn the tables on the BJP too, by using it as a forum to forcefully put forward their side of the story.
“We issued the latest notice for special council meeting as the Corporation has failed miserably in solid waste management. Though several major announcements were made on waste treatment at source, none has proved effective. Each of demands for such meetings were to discuss major issues concerning the people. Now, they have reduced the time for discussion by scheduling the meeting at 4 p.m, instead of 2.30 p.m, as is done usually,” says senior BJP councillor M.R.Gopan.
However, Left Democratic Front’s parliamentary party leader D.R.Anil says that the BJP has been issuing notice for meetings over frivolous reasons.
“Their plan has been to identify some proposed plans of the Corporation in advance and demand a discussion over it. In the case of waste management, we had already asked councillors to identify 10 cents of land in each ward to set up local-level waste management systems, which is one of their demands now. These notices are also meant to slow down the administrative machinery, as at least 3-4 days are lost in carrying out the homework for each meeting,” says Mr.Anil.
