VIZIANAGARAM: Unpleasant scenes and lack of quorum due to absence of Congress ZPTC members, MPPs and officials, the zilla parishad budget meeting was postponed for the second time on Friday.

The meeting to be held on January 9 was put off following notification issued for the ZP Chairperson election on January 24. But groupism within the ruling party marred the election then. The ZP CEO had once again issued a circular stating that the budget meeting would be held on February 2. As the election to chairperson post is scheduled to be held again on February 5, the Congress ZPTCs, except two members -- P. Ramakrishna and D.S. Sitarama Raju from Jami and Nellimarla mandals respectively-- and all district officials, including the Collector, did not attend Friday's meeting. The Telugu Desam ZPTCs, MPPs and MLAs Kala Venkata Rao, P. Narayaswamy Naidu and Padala Aruna reached the conference hall at 11 am, the scheduled time, and waited patiently till the arrival of Chief Executive Officer A. Jagdish and incharge chairperson G. Sudershana Rao.

Slogan-shouting

When they came at 11.40 am the TDP leaders were on their feet and sought to know the reason for the absence of officials.

When the CEO failed to give a convincing reply the enraged Mr. Kala Venkata Rao took him to task and threw water bottle and name board on his desk towards the podium. All the TDP ZPTCs and MPPs rushed to the podium and staged a sit-in on the floor. They raised slogans against the Government and demanded presence of the Collector at the meeting. The slogan-shouting ended when the incharge chairperson promised to pass a resolution stating that the absence of officials would be informed to Panchayat Raj Commissioner, Chief Secretary and the Chief Minister.

The resolution was written in the minutes book and signed by the CEO.

The incharge chairman said that he would seek an explanation from the officials.

Later, Mr. Kala Venkata Rao told reporters that it was a "black day" in the annals of the zilla parishad. Groupism within the Congress had taken people to ransom, he said.

He demanded action against them.

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