Record number of council meetings despite pandemic

35 council meetings held in 2021

Despite the COVID-19 situation, the Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation convened a record number of 35 council meetings in 2021, a number significantly higher than the previous years. According to data from the civic body, a total of 20 council meetings were held in 2020, 19 council meetings in 2010 and 22 council meetings in 2018. The council meetings in local bodies are major platforms for decision making, in which funds are cleared, new bylaws are passed and various applications, including for welfare pensions, are passed. Out of the 35 council meetings, 19 were general meetings, 10 were special council meetings, four were emergency meetings and 2 were convened for the annual budget and its discussions. The constant demands from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to convene special council meetings to discuss on or the other issue that they had raised did contribute to the increased numbers this year. In the previous three years, the total number of special council meetings were 2, with no such meetings convened in 2018. Demanding special council meetings has become the go to strategy for the BJP in the past year, with about four meetings being held within the gap of two months. As per the rules, if one third of the councillors issue a notice for a special council, it has to be convened. This clause, which was used by opposition parties sparingly in the past, is now being used frequently. “Even though we leave out these special council meetings, some of which were convened by the ruling party itself, we still had 25 council meetings, which is high number compared to the total meetings in the previous years. This points at vibrant local governance, as so many agendas affecting the lives of city residents one way or the other are passed in these meetings. The fact that these happened despite the COVID-19 restrictions is also significant,” said a Corporation official. During the pandemic period, some of the council meetings were held fully online, while some others were held partially online, with a specific percentage of councillors from all parties being present physically. During points when the pandemic waves weakened, council meetings were held with all councillors attending physically.