THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city corporation council meeting on Tuesday witnessed a heated exchange between the ruling LDF councillors and opposition BJP councillors. The BJP came out in protest against Deputy Mayor K Raju’s remark that RSS murdered Mahatma Gandhi. BJP members asked Mayor S Arya Rajendran to direct Raju to withdraw his statement. However, the mayor refused to do so.
Though the LDF members tried to pacify BJP councillors, the latter boycotted the council meeting. Meanwhile, council members and other standing committee chairpersons passed agenda as opposition members kept away. Following this, BJP members laid siege to the deputy mayor’s office. Later, the police arrived and held a discussion with the BJP members and the mayor. Following this, the deputy mayor’s remark was removed from the council records.
The BJP also accused LDF of spending lakhs of rupees for the installation of illumination lights from LMS junction to Vellayambalam as part of the first anniversary of the LDF government.The corporation has spent Rs 9.71 lakh on the illumination lights alone.The corporation claims that Rs 4.79 lakh was used to decorate the office building and Rs 4.73 lakh to use electric lights to decorate the trees on either side of the road.
According to BJP parliamentary party leader M R Gopan and UDF parliamentary party leader P Padmakumar, the council meeting approved the validation of the mayor’s earlier authorisation to spend the money on May 13 despite disagreement from the opposition party members.BJP member Thirumala Anilkumar and Congress member Johnson Joseph alleged that the corporation’s governing body is a political slave of the state government. However, Deputy Mayor P K Raju explained that the amount was spent on the basis of government directives.