Chaotic scenes witnessed at Dindigul Corporation council meeting

Chaos prevailed at the Dindigul Corporation Council meeting that was held after a gap of three months, on Wednesday. The last time the meeting was held was on August 22.

The meeting was presided over by Dindigul Mayor J. Ilamathi, Corporation Commissioner M. Senthil Murugan and Deputy Mayor S. Rajappa. BJP councillor G. Dhanabalan was suspended from attending the meeting for a period of three months for disrupting the meeting. A special resolution was passed in this regard.

While highlighting the issues in his ward (ward 14), Mr. Dhanabalan made a certain political remark hinting at intra party issues in DMK. The DMK councillors immediately demanded an apology from the BJP councillor. There was chaos all around and after the resolution was passed, he left the meeting.

AIADMK councillors said that their wards were being neglected and staged a walkout. CPI(M) councillors also staged a walk out over the issue pertaining to the street vendors. They said the identity cards of the roadside vendors had not been fully distributed till now. The election of the city sales committee was not advertised in any newspaper.

The entire list of vendors eligible to vote in the city sales committee elections had not yet been provided to the council members or the registered associations. The existing city sales committee had not met and taken any decision, they said.

A protest was held outside the meeting hall by CPI(M) functionaries and the Roadside Vendors Association condemning Dindigul Corporation. They said without issuing any formal announcements to hold the elections, the authorities had acted arbitrarily and appointed the people who they wanted as members.

They said the State government had allocated ₹11 crore for Dindigul Corporation and out of this, funds were allocated only for 10 wards. Funds had not been allocated for the remaining 38 wards. They said the funds should be allocated as per the requirements of all the 48 wards in Dindigul Corporation.