Uproar in Kalamassery municipality over premature dismissal of council meeting

Ruling front accused of passing agenda without discussion

Acrimonious scenes were witnessed at the Kalamasserry municipal Chairperson’s cabin on Wednesday morning after the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) councillors and their counterparts from the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) came to near blows over the premature dismissal of a council meeting after passing the agenda without discussion.

In the melee, an LDF councillor, Lisy Karthikeyan, complained of discomfort and was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Discontent has been brewing among the LDF councillors for a while over the alleged failure of the governing committee to issue the minutes of council meetings as legally mandated. “For the last one year, we haven’t received the minutes of a single council meeting. We had raised this issue at the last council meeting held 22 days ago and the Chairperson (Seema Kannan) had then said that minutes of the meetings would be issued before the next council meeting. But that wasn’t honoured and when we raised this demand, the Chairperson unilaterally declared the agenda comprising 22-odd items as passed and dismissed the meeting. She and the ruling councillors then trooped out of the council hall ignoring our protests,” alleged Henny Baby, the Opposition leader.