The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : High drama at Ambattur Council meeting

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 01, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

High drama at Ambattur Council meeting

Staff Reporter

DMK councillors hold road roko against delay in holding the meet

CHENNAI: The Ambattur Council meeting was held on Monday amid high drama, with DMK councillors holding a road roko to protest against the delay in the holding of meeting.

Charge

The Council meeting was not held last month, councillors alleged, because the Municipal Commissioner did not put certain road works in the subjects to be discussed and cancelled other tenders that had been called for. The Commissioner of the Ambattur Municipality, Jay Raman, said administrative sanction was required for some projects for which tenders had been called for and that he was preventing the violation of rules.

Sanction for 9 roads

Sanction has been granted for the nine roads that the Commissionerate of Municipal Administration (CMA) suggested were laid with cement at a cost above Rs. 6 crore. Other roads for which tenders were called for on November 30 also required sanction, he said.

Tenders `cancelled'

The Chairman of the Council, Rukmangadhan, said sanction had not been granted only for the works to be executed from CMA loans. He alleged that tenders called for in January had been cancelled and that emergency works to repair roads after the rains did not appear in the subjects sent by the Commissioner.

The meeting was held with a quorum of 17, consisting of 14 AIADMK councillors and 3 Independents.

The proposed subject list for the meeting last month, which was not held due to this dispute, was covered this time, said Mr. Rukmangadhan.

Blockade

Non-AIADMK councillors did not let him into the hall initially and later blocked the MTH Road for half an hour.

They said that they resorted to the measure to protest against the meeting not being conducted last month, cancellation of tenders by the Commissioner and incomplete emergency and development works. Twenty-two, including councillors of the DMK, the PMK, the MDMK, the Congress, and two independents, were remanded and released in the evening.

The DMK and PMK councillors have filed a complaint with the T1 Police Station accusing an AIADMK Town Secretary of forcibly entering the council meeting.

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