The Hindu : 20 resolutions passed at a stretch, sans debate

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 31, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

20 resolutions passed at a stretch, sans debate

By Karthik Subramanian

CHENNAI MAY 30. Resolutions were passed at Ripon Buildings today at a blistering pace, when the Chennai Corporation Council met, and the Deputy Mayor, `Karate' Thiagarajan got passed the last 20 of the 60 resolutions at one go without any debate.

The desperate attempts of the Opposition councillors to attract the attention of the Deputy Mayor failed as the AIADMK members used their majority to give consent by voice vote. The resolution spree was kicked off by a debate over a resolution to permit the CMDA to take up the construction of a vehicular subway at Korukkupet for which the Chennai Corporation was funding 50 per cent of the overall cost of Rs 7.2 crores. The Opposition councillors, including P.D. Sivaji (DMK), P.S.S. Dhanushkodi (BJP) and Saidai P. Ravi (Congress) said handing over the scheme to the CMDA would set a "wrong precedent".

However, Mr. Thiagarajan passed the resolution despite requests to pass it replacing CMDA with the Chennai Corporation as an executing authority. Subsequently, Mr. Thiagarajan passed the remaining resolutions (44 to 60) at a stretch without any debate.

The BJP floor leader, P.S.S. Dhanushkodi, who finally got a chance to speak at the end of the meeting when the DMK councillors were evicted from the council, said there were several queries his party had in mind on the resolution. "We are not expecting you not to pass the resolutions because of the objections. But the least you can do is allow us to register our complaints", he said.

Most of the objections pertained to resolution no.44 in which the Corporation had resolved to pledge its assigned revenue to TUFIDCO in the event of default in the repayment of loans.

"We simply could not understand what was so important about the 61st resolution (pertaining to the alleged encroachment of land by former Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi in Gopalapuram) that it needed to be passed despite the councillors not having seen the files. But the resolutions that required debate were not even discussed," said the Congress floor leader, Royapuram R. Mano.

Others who objected to the "batch passing" of resolutions included the CPM councillor, Devi, and the Tamil Maanila Desiya League, Mohammed Yasim.

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