THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Dramatic scenes unfolded at the city corporation council meeting on Monday as BJP councillors staged a protest over alleged corruption and political favouritism in the appointment of sanitation workers. The protest, which turned chaotic, delayed the council proceedings by over 30 minutes leading to police intervention and a scuffle. Several women councillors from both the BJP and LDF were injured in the scuffle.
The BJP councillors questioned the recruitment of Kazhakoottam councillor for the sanitation worker’s post. The controversy stems from the recruitment process for 56 sanitation workers posts. Alleging lack of transparency, backdoor appointments and political bias in the selection process, BJP councillors disrupted the council session that was scheduled to begin at 2.30 pm.
The protest began when BJP councillors entered the council hall ahead of the scheduled session and started raising corruption slogans against the ruling party. BJP women councillors holding placards, climbed onto the Mayor’s dais. In response to this, the LDF councilors also hurled corruption allegations against the BJP councillors making the situation worse. This led to a scuffle in which several councillors including women from both BJP and the LDF sustained injuries.
Despite the continued protests and chaos, the Mayor resumed the council session amid heavy police presence and passed all the listed agendas including the controversial appointment of sanitation workers. The women police personnel struggled to keep the situation under control as the BJP councillors refused to back off from the protest. The session became more stormy when the LDF councillors tore and threw away the banners put up by the BJP inside the council hall.
Even after removing them, BJP councillors continued their protest shouting slogans and accusing the administration of blatant misuse of power and corruption in the recruitment.
The controversy surrounds the selection process for 56 sanitation worker posts, for which nearly 403 candidates were recently interviewed.
Health standing committee chairperson Gayathri Babu said that the recruitment was done through employment exchange and refuted the corruption allegation. She also clarified that this is not the first time a councillor is applying for a job via the Employment Exchange. However, the BJP has decided to intensify their protest in the coming days demanding the cancellation of the recruitment list.
UDF parliamentary party leader P Padmakumar alleged that the clash between the LDF and BJP was a result of mutual political bargaining. He said that a list of 671 candidates was received from the district employment exchange on May 15, 2024. Despite conducting interviews in the following weeks, the list was kept locked away by the ruling council. “They deliberately delayed the recruitment process to protect a councillor from disqualification. They wanted to prevent a by-election in Kazhakoottam ward as one of the candidates is a sitting councillor. There should be an investigation into the matter of how this councillor’s name appeared in the recruited list,” he said.
Meanwhile, the LDF is gearing up to take legal action against the BJP councillors for consistently disrupting the council sessions.