Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Opposition team for Chennai

By Our Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE, JAN.11. A four-member team of the Opposition in the Coimbatore Corporation Council will meet top municipal administration officials in Chennai tomorrow to request for quashing of the 20 resolutions passed in the Council meeting on January 5.

The Opposition comprising the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League staged a sit-in during the meeting to demand a Special Meeting to discuss the problems facing the people.

The demand was rejected by the Mayor, T. Malaravan, who insisted that the Ordinary Meeting that was in progress then could not be deferred. Even as the Opposition members staged the sit-in and raised slogans in support of their demand for the Special Meeting, the resolutions were read out and were deemed as passed after the councillors of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Bharatiya Janata Party and Independents supporting the AIADMK approved them with thumping of desks.

The Opposition members claimed that the resolutions were passed without the required majority, and threatened to move the court to have them quashed. They also observed a fast on Monday to protest the passing of resolutions and denial of a Special Meeting. They also indicated that the entire issue might turn out to be a long struggle.

Face-saving effort

However, the ruling party members brushed this aside and described the fast as a face-saving effort by the Opposition after their protest in the Council failed to stop the approval of resolutions.

The fasting members of the Opposition charged the AIADMK with passing the resolutions without the required majority, especially when at least 10 of them were debatable and could bring loss of revenue to the Corporation.

The leader of the CPI (M), C. Padmanabhan, asked how the Corporation could contemplate handing over of water charges assessment to self-help groups. "It is a key revenue and service sector. The annual revenue in water charges is Rs.10 crores. How can such an important work be handed over to inexperienced SHGs?" There were many such important issues to be discussed but a Special Meeting was disallowed.

Mr. Padmanabhan, R. Devaraj (CPI), M. Krishnaswamy (MDMK) and `Colony' R. Venkatachalam (Congress) would meet the Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply and the Commissioner for Municipal Administration at Chennai tomorrow. They would submit a memorandum to the officials, seeking quashing of the resolutions.

Simultaneously, legal recourse would also be explored. If the Government ratified the resolutions, the Opposition would move the court against the approval, they said.

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