Udupi, Jan 30: The general body meeting of the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) was adjourned amid unprecedented scenes of a man who entered the meeting without permission being manhandled, here on Thursday.
It all began with Congress councillor Geeta Shet saying at the meeting that she was not being supported by fellow ruling Congress councillors on matters relating to her Kadiyali ward. She was upset with a nominated Congress councillor, Satish, over the issue of inauguration of a road.
She then submitted her resignation as councillor to CMC president Meenaksh Bannanje. Ms. Bannanje tried to pacify her and said that her grievance could be discussed later as it had nothing to do with administrative matters. But Ms. Shet was unrelenting and said that she would call a man from her ward who will clarify on the inauguration of the road. Meanwhile, Congress councillors Ramesh Kanchan and Janardhan Bhandarkar demanded clarification on drinking water and desilting issues. But the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillors objected to this.
This led to a shouting match between Congress and BJP councillors. In the meantime, the man, Ronnie D’mello, whom Ms. Shet had called, entered the general body meeting hall. The Congress councillors got infuriated at this. They manhandled him and pushed him out of the meeting hall and there was pandemonium in the House with both the Congress and BJP councillors trading charges against one another. In the midst of this, Ms. Bannanje said that the agenda had been passed by a majority and adjourned the meeting.
Later, Dinakar Shetty Herga, BJP councillor, told presspersons that the ruling Congress was responsible for the unprecedented shameful scenes witnessed in the CMC meeting.
Meanwhile, Ms. Bannanje told presspersons that the BJP was not interested in allowing any CMC meeting to proceed smoothly.
BJP hits back
On the other hand, the Udupi district unit of the BJP termed the incidents which took place during the general body meeting of the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) as a “blot” and a “dark day” for Udupi.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Mattar Ratnakar Hegde, president of the district unit of the BJP, said that a person, Ronnie D’Mello, who visited the CMC on the request of a Congress councillor, Geeta Shet, was manhandled by other Congress councillors leading to the CMC meeting being adjourned. The BJP would stage a protest against this “goonda culture” of the Congress, in front of the Clock Tower on Friday.
He said that Ms. Shet was only trying to tell the problems of her ward. She had also told the House that she would call D’Mello to buttress her claim against her fellow Congress councillor.
CMC president Meenakshi Bannanje could have told Ms. Shet not to do so. But Ms. Bannanje kept quiet. After D’Mello came to the CMC meeting and began speaking, Ms. Bannanje and CMC Commissioner D. Manjunathaiah could have ensured that he was escorted out of the meeting quietly.
Instead, Congress councillors, Ramesh Kanchan, R.K. Ramesh and others, manhandled Mr. D’Mello and pushed him out of the meeting hall. Similarly, they also tried to assault Ms. Shet, he said and showed a clip of a Congress councillor touching Ms. Shet’s pleat. “This incident shows how the Congress is treating women and members of the minority communities,” he said.
He said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should immediately expel these councillors from the party for resorting to “goonda culture”. “Ms. Bannanje should take moral responsibility for the incident and resign,” he said. The attack on Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis while she took on the sand mafia and the attack on a police constable by men allegedly working in Minister of State for Fisheries and Sports Pramod Madhwaraj’s fish factory a few months ago showed the poor law and order in the district.
The utterances of Minister B. Ramanath Rai against RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat and senior Congress leader B. Janardhan Poojary, showed that the rot in the Congress went deep, Mr. Hegde said.
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