NAGERCOIL: The Nagercoil municipal council meeting on Friday witnessed an uproarious scene after the councillors had gheraoed the Commissioner, Sudharsana Chowdry, for "not giving due respect" to them.

Moreover, it is alleged that the commissioner threatened to dismiss the councillors, if they indulged in a wordy quarrel for complaining defects in their wards.

All councillors cutting across party lines staged a walkout, protesting the behaviour of the commissioner. Similarly, all officials, including the commissioner, also staged a walkout, condemning the councillors for making "baseless" charges against Mr. Sudharsana Chowdry.

As the chairperson, Meena Dev, could not attend the meeting, the vice-chairman, R.M. Murughan, who chaired the meeting, later told the councillors that the meeting could be conducted in the absence of the commissioner.

However, the commissioner again attended the meeting after 10 minutes.

When the councillors again tried to level charges against the commissioner, he again staged a walkout.

However, the vice-chairman continued to conduct the meeting without any official.

Following the chaos and the absence of the chairperson, the presentation of the budget for 2005-06 was postponed after passing a resolution.

Later speaking to presspersons, Mr. Sudharsana Chowdry said the charges were baseless.

"The Municipality has to incur a loss of several lakhs of rupees when the tax appeal committee, including the councillors and the officials, made recommendations for reducing the property tax to even the rich."

For example, based on an appeal made by the owner of a hotel, the tax appeal committee reduced the biannual tax from Rs.40,000 to Rs.10,000, he said.

When the "fraud" came to light, both the manager, Muthuswamy, and a clerk, Kumar, were transferred to other district. Moreover, departmental action had already been initiated against three more clerks, Anand, Palani Asari and Parameswaran, the Commissioner added.

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