AIADMK stages walkout at Thanjavur council meeting over splurging Rs 1 crore for 'promoting' mayor

THANJAVUR:  AIADMK members and the lone AMMK councillor on Tuesday walked out of the Thanjavur city corporation council meeting condemning the alleged spending of Rs 1 crore of public money for printing 55,000 copies of a booklet solely for promoting the mayor on the completion of one year of the council.

At the meeting chaired by Mayor S Ramanathan, AIADMK member from Ward 41 K Manikandan after raising a host of issues, including the writing off of tax arrears to the tune of Rs 6 crore, touched on the allegation of printing 55,000 booklets on the council’s completion of one year.

He questioned how public money could be spent in promoting the mayor and added that there was no information on aspects like the projects taken up and those completed. There has been only assurances and no fund allocation mentioned in the booklet, he said.

Further, the mayor's announcements like building 1,000 houses for sanitation workers at Chekkadai compost yard and the installation of CCTV cameras across the city remain unfulfilled, Manikandan said. Even as he was speaking the DMK members tried to shout him down.

Following this the AIADMK members and the lone AMMK member walked out of the meeting. Earlier, AMMK member V Kannukkiniyal sought proper maintenance of the underground drainage (UGD) network as she alleged that sewage water is overflowing in some areas.