An ongoing tussle between two councillors of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the leaders of the Kerala Municipal and Corporation Staff Union (KMCSU) is proving to be a headache to the ruling front.
On Wednesday, Communist Party of India (CPI) councillor Solomon Vettukad and Congress(S) councillor Palayam Rajan took part in a protest meeting along with councillors of the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party against the union, for allegedly insulting the councillors in a protest march two days ago.
The issue began at a meeting of the Corporation council last week, when both the councillors criticised certain officials who were allegedly delaying delivery of services to the public, to get bribes. While Mr. Solomon’s allegations were against officials of the revenue section, Mr. Rajan’s accusations were against officials in the welfare pension section. They said this attitude of some of the officials had prevented the good work of the Mayor and the ruling council from reaching the public.
The KMCSU took offence at these remarks, and took out a protest march and held a meeting at the Corporation office on Monday.
‘Dictating terms’
“In this protest meeting, they said the people’s representatives were the real corrupt ones. We decided to join the protest meeting today with the other parties on a common platform because they were dictating that the councillors should not take up the issues in the various departments for the common people,” said Mr. Rajan.
However, the KMCSU leaders maintain that they had raised only issues regarding the employees in their protest, and did not target anyone.
“Our protest rally was regarding the workload in various sections and the lack of enough employees to handle it all. For instance, the pension section handles thousands of applications, and there are only a few employees to take care of it,” said Suresh, KMCSU leader.
Both sides have submitted letters to Mayor V.K. Prashanth demanding action against the other group. The councillors have demanded that the KMCSU leaders be summoned to the next council meeting and disciplined, for going against the decisions of the council. The KMCSU has demanded action against the LDF councillors for raising issues in a public forum, instead of talking about it internally. “I have received complaints from both sides and have informed the party leadership. The steps to be taken will be decided later,” said the Mayor.
