A clash between councillors from the ruling and Opposition parties disrupted the meeting of the Kozhikode Corporation Council on Tuesday.
The row began with Congress councillor Vidya Balakrishnan raising questions over the qualification of the firm Ram Biologicals to prepare a detailed project report for the sewage treatment plant (STP) being constructed in four places in the city under the Amrut scheme.
The Mayor’s replies did not satisfy the Opposition. Later Ms. Balakrishnan asked if the proposal for STP at Kothi and Avikkalthodu had the council’s approval and Mayor Thottathil Raveendran answered in the negative. Ms. Balakrishnan’s request for an explanation was rejected on the grounds that the question was against the rules and the Mayor moved on to the next item on the agenda.
At this point, the Opposition councillors rushed to the Mayor’s podium and asked him to discuss the issue at hand. The ruling front councillors joined issue, which resulted in a scuffle.
Meanwhile, IUML councillor C. Abdurahman allegedly tried to snatch the agenda papers from the Mayor’s hand. Later, Mr. Abdurahman was injured in the eye and taken to a private eye hospital in the city.
The Opposition walked out and the meeting was discontinued after part of the agenda was passed. It included some of the major projects under Amrut, which were passed without any discussion.
Disciplinary action
Some ruling front councillors demanded disciplinary action against Mr. Abdurahman, but the Mayor did not take it up.
Later at a press conference, Mr. Raveendran said the situation was unfortunate and uncalled for. He said the Opposition had raised no objections when the company was approved in an earlier meeting of the council and had not raised any objections during the window period. He alleged a conspiracy to thwart projects under Amrut in the city, which needed to be set on track before March 2020 if the Corporation did not want to lose Central funds for the scheme.
The Congress has been alleging large scale corruption over the choice of company to prepare the project report for some months now, on grounds that the selected company had little practical experience.