DMK woman councillor sits on the floor in front of Corporation office; stages dharna

TIRUNELVELI

Condemning the Corporation’s failure to allocate funds for carrying out development works in her ward, a DMK councillor staged a dharna at the main entrance of the administrative office of the urban civic body on Thursday after the urban local body’s council meeting was cancelled in the last minute for trivial reasons.

 Sitting on the floor at the main entrance of the office with a board that squarely blamed the Corporation for reportedly not fulfilling her demands, Ms. Indra Mani said no request from her had been executed in the past eight months. “I cannot answer the embarrassing questions being raised by the residents of my ward pertaining to civic issues. I’m very much under pressure due to the poor performance of this corporation,” said Ms. Indra, who was wearing a black attire.

 After a few councilors of the DMK pacified her, the protesting councilor gave-up her agitation.

 The council meeting scheduled for Thursday triggered a lot of curiosity among the residents as a proposal for disqualifying two AIADMK councilors had been included in the agenda. However, an interim stay from the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on taking any further decision on the proposal drained the curiosity off to a greater extent.

 Since the non-attendance of two AIADMK councilors in three council meeting had paved way for the disqualification move, it was widely expected that the two members would attend today’s meeting.  However, the meeting was cancelled in the last minute through a press statement from the Mayor who cited the death of an advocate affiliated to the DMK as the reason behind the cancellation of the meeting.

 “This is a measly reason… Clear instructions had been given to the DMK members to vociferously support the disqualification proposal. As the interim stay by the Court has robbed off their enthusiasm of snatching away two AIADMK members’ posts, the meeting has been cancelled. But they cited the death of a little known DMK advocate as the reason,” said a DMK councillor.