The City Corporation will convene a meeting of all party members and
employees’ organisations soon to find  solutions to the cases that exist
in the name of the people’s representatives and officials. It was while
winding up the special council meeting convened on Wednesday to discuss
the issues of the discord between councillors and officials and the
complaints about the officials regarding executing the services to the
public that Mayor K Chandrika made the announcement.

The special
meeting was held following the demand of 49 councillors in the
opposition, as the Mayor had rejected an adjournment motion moved in the
previous council meeting over the same subject.

Yet, the four-hour meeting did not see a healthy discussion as many deviated from the subject itself.

The
discussion, which was started with UDF councillor Maheswaran Nair,
ended on a rather cold note. He said organisations that try to protect
the tainted officials will not be supported, whatever  party they belong
to. And demanded that the organisations should work towards rooting out
corruption.

When LDF leader V S Padmakumar delved into the
achievements of the present council in the past two-and-a-half years,
BJP leader P Asok Kumar pointed out that much delay caused in getting
things done results in corruption. He also suggested several measures,
including appointing a public relations officer in the Corporation
office to help the people who come for various needs.

Those who
spoke after that touched on peripheral issues regarding the subject and
failed to come up with concrete examples to point out any instances.
Many did not name the officials who were said to be involved in discords
with the councillors or how they were not giving proper services to the
public. The discussion appeared to be on the lines of the question
asked by Deputy Mayor G Happykumar towards the end, ‘’for whom was this
meeting convened?’’