Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Divergent views expressed on adjourning Council meetings

K.V. Prasad

Oppn. is firm that it should not be held without resolving outstanding issues

COIMBATORE: Even as the Coimbatore Corporation struggles to meet the demand for roads in unapproved layouts, there are divergent views on adjourning Council meetings.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Opposition is firm that the meetings shall not be held without resolving outstanding issues such as lack of water supply and roads in 154 layouts brought under the city in 1981, but still treated as unapproved.

The Mayor, T. Malaravan, adjourned the November 30 meeting of the Council as the Opposition insisted that it should not be held without an assurance from the officials that the rain-battered layouts would be provided at least gravel-top roads.

While this was the unanimous view of the Opposition, councillors belonging to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam neither supported nor opposed it openly. Some even secretly supported the stand of the Opposition, but expressed only resentment over the lack of development works in the layouts.

Their predicament, even now, is obvious: politically they cannot oppose or support it. If they support a demand for adjournment, it goes against the mandate for the party to run the affairs of the Council smoothly. If they oppose the demand, the Opposition will quickly pick out the rival councillors to brand them anti-voters. Barring the Mayor, not many made an open criticism of the Opposition.

But, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is openly opposing the adjournment and the AIADMK members seem content that someone else is doing the job on its behalf. The BJP's leader in the Council, A.T. Rajan, opposed the adjournment demand in the November 30 meeting. A member of the AIADMK says the problems faced by the unapproved layouts are grave. They have to be solved but this certainly does not call for disrupting a Council meeting that is convened to discuss various other important issues also.

The Opposition is unhappy with the allocation of Rs. 50 lakhs for road works in these layouts. It has asked for raising it to Rs. 2 crores. This has pushed into uncertainty the Council meeting rescheduled for Monday. The Opposition parties say that they, too, want other issues to be discussed and that they are not bent on disrupting the meeting. But, the problems in the unapproved layouts gain precedence over other issues, they argue.

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