VIJAYAWADA: The second council meeting of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) witnessed stormy scenes over the proposed taxation policy on Thursday. A visibly frustrated Mayor Rayana Bhagyalakshmi slapped a suspension notice on TDP corporators and CPI(M) corporator B Satya Babu. Condemning the ruling party for its decision on the proposed taxation policy, the suspended corporators staged a demo outside the council hall. The police arrested them and shifted them to Governorpet PS to restore normalcy.
The suspension notice only added more fuel to the fire. Throughout the council meeting, the Opposition corporators loudly opposed the proposed taxation policy. Earlier, TDP corporators Kesineni Swetha, Jasti Sambasiva Rao, Chennupati Usha Rani, Devineni Aparna and others entered the council session with black ribbons and holding placards opposing the proposed new taxation policy. On the other hand, the police arrested agitating CPM leaders Ch Babu Rao, D Kasinath, former corporator G Adilakshmi and took them to Krishna Lanka and Governorpet PS for staging a demonstration before the VMC office opposing the proposed new taxation policy.
After the session commenced, heated arguments were exchanged between both the TDP and YSRC corporators over the proposed taxation policy. Taking a dig at the TDP corporators, Endowments Minister Vellampalli Srinivasa Rao and MLA Malladi Vishnu asked them to participate in a debate over the proposed new taxation policy rather than creating a ruckus in the middle of the session. The Mayor adjourned the session for 10 minutes as the situation was going out of control. When the suspended corporators didn’t leave the council hall, the Mayor directed the marshals to take them outside the hall so that the session could be resumed.
A minor scuffle began between the police and the suspended corporators and the former arrested them and shifted them to Governorpet PS. The arrested corporators staged a demonstration before the police station denouncing the indifferent attitude of Mayor Rayana Bhagyalakshmi and YSRC corporators. Meanwhile, the council has discussed 147 topics mentioned in the agenda relating to the various development works and various welfare programmes. Among them, 39 topics were passed and the remaining were sent to the office for remarks.