THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city corporation council meeting held here on Wednesday ended in chaos without any discussions, as BJP councillors staged a protest over the water supply crisis that plagued the capital city for five consecutive days. The BJP councillors came out into the well of the council soon after the council session began shouting slogans against the ruling council and blaming the civic body for not managing the water crisis which severely affected the residents in the capital.
Dramatic scenes erupted at the council as BJP councillors continued to block the mayor, disrupting the council session. Following this, the mayor ended the council meeting and passed the agenda without any discussion.
The BJP councillors continued their protest even after the council session was ended. They followed the mayor shouting slogans and staged a dharna in front of the mayor’s office briefly. Senior leader and BJP councillor P Ashok Kumar said that the mayor concluded the council session immediately to avoid discussion on the expenditure-income of the last financial year. The opposition has given a letter to the corporation secretary demanding council discussion on the agenda passed by the finance committee. “There are many anomalies in the figures presented in the agenda by the finance committee. Usually they present the previous year’s data for comparison and it is missing in the agenda. Last year there were tax hikes and the civic body has failed to improve the income. They are trying to cover it up and hence avoiding a discussion. We have given a request for convening another council to discuss the issue,” said P Ashok Kumar.
However, the LDF councillors blamed the opposition for unnecessarily making a ruckus in the council and claimed that the water supply disruption happened because of the realignment of pipelines taken up by the KWA to facilitate the railway doubling work and putting the blame on the mayor for the water supply disruption is totally baseless.