Salem Corporation council meeting held peacefully; Mayor cancels three resolutions

The Salem Corporation council meeting ended peacefully on Friday (October 23) amid a rift between the DMK councillors. City Mayor A. Ramachandran cancelled three resolutions in the meeting.

On October 8, the DMK councillors attacked each other in the Mayor’s chamber in the Salem Corporation office over the party’s internal issue.

As such, for Friday’s Corporation council meeting, a posse of police personnel had been deployed on the Corporation office premises to prevent any untoward incidents. 

At the start of the meeting, DMK councillors led by G. Kumaravel (ward 3) petitioned the Mayor seeking action against Deputy Mayor M. Saradha Devi for allegedly disrupting the council meeting held on August 28 by bringing unknown individuals inside the council meeting hall.

Receiving the petition, the Mayor announced that a resolution would be passed to suspend the Deputy Mayor for two months. In response, the Deputy Mayor petitioned Corporation Commissioner Lalitaditya Neelam, demanding action against DMK councillors for allegedly disrupting the meeting.

Speaking at the meeting, DMK councillor Esan D. Elango said that the minute book should be placed before the Mayor and the speech of the councillors should be recorded and a copy of the minutes should be given to all councillors.

Ward issues

Mr. Elango said that the crematorium in his ward was yet to be operationalised and that there was public pressure to open it. If the crematorium was not opened in the next 10 days, the corporation would face a protest, he warned.

Ward 14 DMK councillor M.R. Santhamoorthy said that in the Salem New Bus Stand, a person had taken 29 shops on auction in his family members’ names and was paying ₹9,000-₹11,000 per shop tothe Corporation as monthly rent. The same person, however, was renting out these 29 shops to others and collecting ₹32,000 a month per shop.

The person has also lodged a complaint with the Pallapatti police alleging that those who had taken the shops on rent from him was not vacating them.

The Corporation officials, as such, should inspect the shops, cancel the tender, and reauction the shops. The corporation can give each shop for a monthly rent of ₹30,000, he said.

Mr. Santhamoorthy also alleged that the government was yet to release a fund of ₹20 crore to the Salem Corporation owing to the negligence of officials in submitting files properly. Steps should be taken to get the fund by speeding up the process, he added.

Opposition leader N. Yadhavamoorthy and whip K.C. Selvaraj of the AIADMK alleged that the agenda for the council meeting was only given to councillors on Friday at 9 a.m. The councillors did not have time to read the agendas and explain their views.

So the 92 resolutions provided under the urgent council meeting should be cancelled, especially the three resolutions awarding tenders to collect parking charges and collecting tolls at markets in the Ammapet zone, they added.

Replying to this, the Mayor said that it was difficult to cancel all the agendas but the three resolutions would be cancelled based on the councillors’ demand, he added.

Later the AIADMK councillors staged a walkout from the meeting against the implementation of the waste-to-energy project in Salem Corporation limits.