TIRUCHY: The Tiruchy mayor reminded councillors not to cross the line while expressing dissent in the civic council meetings. At the onset of the city corporation's September session held on Friday the mayor expressed his dissatisfaction in the way councillor V Porkodi raised her concerns by presenting 'halwa' to him at the last month's session.
Indicating that he will not tolerate such type of protests, Mayor Anbalagan stressed that dissent is welcome but it must be done in a way ensuring decorum and demanded an apology from Porkodi.
The mayor added that though he got an explanation from the councillor for her behaviour, it was not satisfactory.
He noted that the protest strategy followed by the councillor was widely reported in the media and was against the decorum to be followed in the council.
Anabalagan then tabled the details of works done in Porkodi's ward (No 63) and pointed out that her claim of no civic work there was totally misleading. Thereafter, the mayor took a stern stand that the councillor must express the apology in the council or he will take action. Porkodi then put the blame on journalists, claiming they reported the matter in a misleading manner. This led to heated arguments, and some journalists present at council also expressed their dissent.
Caught between the rock and a hard place, Porkodi expressed her apology. After such a stormy start, the council then considered various civic issues, tabled 90 resolutions in the session, and unanimously adopted all of them. Most of the resolutions were relating to minor civic works, including drinking water supply and road works.
Councillors P Govindaraj, Jawahar, Kajamalai Vijay and a few others raised the issues related to underground drainage works and storm water drains in their areas. The mayor assured that the work on damaged roads and stormwater drains will be put on the fast track considering the upcoming monsoon. Some councillors raised concerns over the streetlights in their area. Officials assured that they would take steps to replace faulty, damaged lights.
Meanwhile, councillor L Rex informed the mayor that a trader converted a bus stop shelter in Kailash Nagar to a tiffin shop. He said officials were unable to clear this encroachment due to stiff opposition from the trader. The mayor directed the corporation team to clear the shop with police assistance.
Councillor Suresh Kumar wanted all the corporation schools to have sufficient CCTV coverage.
These discussions held at the general session started at 10 am and concluded by 12.30 pm.