VIZIANAGARAM: The unilateral selection of 12 wards in the town for the `Indiramma Pathakam' scheme by the Government witnessed strong protests from the Congress ally Bahujan Samaj Party and the Telugu Desam Party councillors at the special Municipal Council meeting on Wednesday. The BSP and TDP councillors walked out in protest against the non-inclusion of at least one ward represented by them in the first list.

Alleging bias in the selection list, the councillors sought to know from the Chairperson M. Geetha (Congress) and Commissioner D. J. Samson, the yardstick adopted in the identification of the wards.

After the listed agenda for elections to Contract, Appointment and Headmasters committee was completed, the Chairperson announced ward numbers 4, 7, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18 21, 22, 25 and 26 as identified for grounding `Indiramma Pathakam'.

Parameters

The TDP councillor Muddada Chandrasekhar wanted to know the parameters observed in the identification of wards because several development works were already executed in the wards listed by her. When the Chairperson said that the wards were identified by the Government on the basis of information available with it, Dr. V. S. Prasad (TDP) said "it is a bad precedent". K. Surya Prabhavathi (TDP) alleged partiality in the identification of wards as they were all represented by Congress councillors and announced a walk-out.

Agreeing with the TDP members' contention, Vice-Chairman S. Suri Babu (BSP) asked the Chairperson whether the Government or the municipality would release grants for the wards' development. He even threatened to oppose the `pathakam' if the works were executed with municipal grants. Mr. Babu sought the guidelines from the Commissioner. When the Commissioner said that he was yet to receive them from the Government, L. Mohana Rao (BSP) took objection to inclusion of the subject for discussion. Saying that it was not proper for the Government to identify wards by ignoring the councillors, the Vice-Chairman staged a walk-out along with other BSP councillors.

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