VELLORE: President of the Corporation Education Committee and Councillor of 41st ward K Suryachari has levelled allegations that the city Mayor P Karthiyayini and her husband Anush Kumar have allegedly been threatening civic body officials and taking decisions arbitrarily.
The allegations were made during the Council meeting here on Thursday.
Speaking on the occasion, Suryachari said, “The Mayor and her husband have been taking decisions without consulting others, and the administration of the Corporation is in their hands.” He added: “I had organised a meeting, but none of the Corporation officials attended it.”
Following this, many of the other Councillors present at the meeting rose from their seats and asked Suryachari to change the topic and talk about the problems faced by the people in his ward. Also, denying Suryachari’s allegations, the Corporation Commissioner Janaki Raveendaran said, “We’ve never received an invitation from the president of the Education Committee. He takes decisions on his own and doesn’t consult the Municipality engineer or the zonal officer or the Commissioner either.”
The Mayor said,“ Suryachari is disrespecting the Council by making baseless charges and I am warning him not to speak without any proof. I will issue a notice seeking his explanation regarding this. In fact, I’ve received complaints that president of Education Committee was threatening the government school headmasters to get his nod for all petty issues.”
Further, she said,“The forthcoming Education Committee meetings and developmental works would hereafter take place under my direct supervision.” Immediately, some Councillors voiced their demand to dismantle the present Education Committee and form a new one in its place.”
Later, they drew the attention of the Council to the water issue and drainage problems in the wards and there was a heated debate on the civic amenities for an hour or so.
M Sekar, the 23th ward Councillor, said, “A year ago, a resolution was passed to open a new primary health centre in my ward. But, till now, no action was taken.”
A similar problem was also raised by the 16th ward Councillor Sundaram.
Resolutions on the construction of a new building for merchants in Nethaji market were passed at the meeting.
Referring to the orders issued by the civic officials to the merchants to vacate the market to facilitate the construction of new buildings, Councillors demanded the merchants to hand over the same space to the same merchants soon after completing the projects.
To this, the Commissioner said,“The rules do not permit that. As per the Corporation regulations, we would propose a lease tender after the construction. If merchants are ready to contribute 50 per cent of the building cost, we would think about raising the issue with the government.”