COIMBATORE: In a rare show of unity, ward members of DMK and AIADMK in Valparai Municipality staged a sit-in protest inside the council hall during the meeting on Friday, alleging irregularities in the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme.
After sitting on a protest for over one hour, all the ward members walked out of the hall saying the municipality chairperson did not give them a convincing reply. Valparai Municipality has 21 wards.
Of this, 19 members are from DMK. The AIADMK and VCK have one member each. The chairperson Alagu Sundaravalli Selvam is from the DMK and represents ward 14.
On Friday, 15 ward members participated in the council meeting presided by Alagu Sundaravalli Selvam. As soon as the meeting started, chaos reigned in the hall as the members including DMK members led by Ravichandran, Magudeeshwaran and AIADMK member Manikandan and Veeramani of VCK staged a sit-in protest alleging there were several irregularities in the implementation of CM’s breakfast scheme.
The members said there are only 500 beneficiaries of the scheme, but in the records the number is recorded as 1500 beneficiaries. Also, they said development works are not carried out in any wards except chair person’s ward (14). Further, they said the income and expenditure statement has not been tabled yet.
Not convinced by the chairperson’s reply, all the members walked out of the meeting hall after sitting on a protest for one and a half hours.
Chairperson Sundaravalli said, “After reviewing the development works and requirements in each ward, the council meeting will be scheduled and informed to the councillors.”