VELLORE: The councillor of Tirupattur Municipality, dousing himself with kerosene, threatened to end his life in front of the Chairman on Tuesday demanding that the water-scarcity in his ward be adequately addressed. Other councillors staged a sit-in protest outside the Chairman’s chamber.
S. Bhoopathy, councillor of ward no. 34, along with around 50 residents of the ward stormed into Chairman Arasu’s chamber before the commencement of the council meeting. He entered into an argument with the chairman for not taking steps to address the water-scarcity in his ward.
The chairman told Bhoopathy and his ward-residents that the laying of pipelines is almost fully completed in all 36 wards of the municipality. Soon, the town will be getting water supply regularly from the Cauvery drinking water scheme.
Not satisfied with the Chairman’s response, Bhoopathy doused kerosene over himself and threatened Arasu that he would end his life, if he failed to take steps to tackle the water crisis. The persons accompanying Bhoopathy and the police pacified him and brought the situation under control.
Meanwhile, councillors of wards 2,3,4,5,6 and 8 removed the chairman’s chair from the Council Hall and threw it outside as a mark of their displeasure over the local body’s failure in addressing civic issues. They also staged a sit-in protest in front of the chairman’s chamber.
In response, the chairman approached the Tirupattur Town police to file a case against the councillors stating that they were threatening him. Learning about this, the councillors gathered in front of the police and raised slogan against him and condemned his act.
Later, the MLA of Tirupattur K G Ramesh and the police intervened and pacified the councillors and brought the situation under the control. The chairman also withdrew his complaint.