Shaving head protest threat leads to Mayor-Councillor clash
Sanjeev K. Sharma
JAMMU, Feb 28: The ninth General House Meeting (GHM) of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) here today witnessed ruckus after some Councillors clashed with the Mayor after which the latter adjourned the House for some time but it resumed its business after more than an hour.
The House started its proceedings at 11:10 in the morning when the Mayor, Chander Mohan Gupta started the proceedings of the House by his address after which Raj Kumar, Independent Councillor from Ward Number 51 stood up and said that he was going to get his head shaved in the House in protest as nothing practically happens on the resolutions passed in the House.
“My Ward has no Rehri (pull cart) and no spade with the Safai Karamcharis due to which garbage lifting becomes a problem,” he claimed adding that despite repeatedly raising the issue before the officers and other concerned authorities nothing has happened in this regard and it seems that none pays heed towards such vital issues.
He moved towards the podium and sat there to get his head shaved in protest.
This triggered the Mayor to leave the podium and reach the protesting Councillor to pacify him.
Within seconds many Congress and Independents joined the Mayor to stop the Councillor from getting his head shaved while some BJP Councillors mocked at Kumar saying that he already has a few hair on head so what was the need to shave.
Amidst this a lot of noise was raised creating a din in which nothing was properly heard.
Suddenly the Independent Councillor, Jagdish Kumar from Ward number 2 and the Mayor pushed each other thereby triggering resentment from the BJP members who demanded suspension of Jagdish for misbehaving with the Mayor.
Suddenly the opposition Councillors joined Jagdish to counter the demand of their BJP counterparts and the Mayor announced the adjournment of the House for 30 minutes at 11:20 am.
As the House was adjourned there started sloganeering against and in favour of the Mayor by the opposition and BJP Councillors respectively.
The situation normalised soon and the Councillors got busy in their gossips over a cup of tea.
As the house assembled again at 12:42 pm the JMC Secretary read the regulation regarding maintenance of discipline by the Councillors in the House during proceedings.
The Mayor expressed resentment against the alleged misbehaviour with him by the Councillor and sought an apology over which senior member of the House and Congress Chief Whip, Dwarka Nath Chowdhary stood up and said that the House members are like a family.
He quoted the recent Indore visit of JMC Councillors to say that they had learnt from the Indore visit how by forgetting party politics the House has to work in a united manner to make the city a best place.
It is pertinent to mention here that the JMC Councillors, Mayor and Deputy Mayor had visited Municipal Corporation Indore recently to see its working there.
Chowdhary said that the Mayor should forget petty issues and also appealed to the Councillors to maintain proper discipline in the House.
After this the issue of alleged corrupt practices involved in granting building permissions stormed the House with BJP Councillor, Pawan Singh saying that big buildings are spared on monetary interests by JMC officials while petty shopkeepers face sealing of their structures in the hands of Enforcement Wing of JMC.
Many other Councillors also joined Singh after which the JMC Joint Commissioner cleared that demolition action against the big buildings constructed by violating the norms was not possible as JMC lack the required men and machinery to demolish such huge structures.
At this Congress Councillor, Rajni Bala demanded that the Councillors should be informed about the number of approved sketches in their wards as far as constructions are concerned.
Earlier at the start of the House business the Mayor in his address had lauded the ongoing fixing of street lights in the city and has said that by March 15 entire Jammu city will have street lights.
He had also said that in next 10-15 days the shortage of Safai Karamcharis will be overcome by fresh appointments.
“The Councillors will now be provided with runners for helping them and load carrier autos carrying garbage will also be having a Safai Karamchari within few days,” he further said adding that apart from all this 57 more autos for garbage collection will be sanctioned soon.
This was the first GHM of newly posted Commisioner JMC, Anvi Lawasa.
After this the house ran smoothly to take a break for lunch at 2:00 pm.
The next sitting witnessed the passing of some resolutions like naming Jammu Airport as Maharaja Hari Singh Airport, rechristening Jammu University as Maharaja Gulab Singh University and abolishing of the Custodian Department. These resolutions were presented by BJP Councillor, Narotam Sharma.
Many more resolutions were also passed prominent among which were installation of statue of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Kachi Chawani Chowk and installation of statue of Lord Shiva at Bhagwati Nagar crossing.
However, the proceedings of the House continued till 6:00 in the evening.
The house will again assemble tomorrow at 2:00 pm.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
