The Opposition DMK walked out of the Chennai corporation council on Thursday protesting the inordinate delay in inaugurating three new bridges at Villivakkam, Indira Nagar and Mehta Nagar.

The Opposition party leader in the corporation council Subsah Chandra Bose pointed out that all the three bridges in the city were mooted by the previous DMK regime and for the same reason despite completion these projects were not inaugurated.

“Public money to a tune of Rs 37 crore has been spent for these bridges and if inaugurated the motorists would benefit to a great extent,” Bose said.

“As usual the mayor denied permission to discuss on the subject and we were forced to walk out of the council”, he alleged.

Similarly another DMK councillor K. Neelankandan informed the council that tender works and developments have been stalled in the Ambattur zone as the zonal meetings were not conducted.

Since the DMK chairman heads the zone, Ambattur is neglected and the corporation fails to address the local public issues, he alleged.

Retaliating back, Chennai mayor Saidai Duraisamy said that there was no quorum in the Ambattur zone, due to the incapability of the local chairman to convene the zonal-ward committee meeting the zone is trailing.

Steps are underway to sort out the issue, soon legal provisions and a bye law in this regard will be introduced in the corporation council, he added.

Regarding the delay in inaugural of bridges, Mr Duraisamy said that the projects were only nearing completion and not completed, soon the bridges will be thrown open for traffic.

But the mayor remained tight lipped over the inaugural date, when opposition councillors demanded a specific date line for inaugurating the bridges.

House witnesses war of words

The state legislative assembly witnessed stormy scenes Thursday when Opposition DMDK members raised their voice objecting to remarks made by information minister Rajenthira Balaji.

They had assumed the remarks had been made against their leader Vijayakanth.

DMDK member Venkatesan was evicted and also suspended for the rest of the session. Speaker Jayakumar said later he would consider revoking his ruling if the legislator explained to him his behaviour.

A war of words erupted between the treasury benches and DMDK members while the minister was replying to the debate on demands for his department.

The minister said, “Leaders of a few parties have decided not to contest in Pudukkottai bypolls fearing losing their deposit while a few leaders are ‘fumbling’ for taking decisions on contesting.”

DMDK legislators strongly objected to this and raised their voices and demanded the remarks be expunged.

Members of AIADMK including ministers were up on their feet in retaliation and raised their voice causing noisy scenes in the assembly.

At this juncture ministers K.P. Munusamy and O. Panneerselvam explained that the minister had only made general remarks and had not mentioned anyone’s name in particular.

However DMDK members insisted on the words being expunged when the Speaker warned legislator Venkatesan and directed the watch and ward to evict him from the assembly.

After this, all the Opposition parties including DMDK, barring PMK, requested the Speaker to reconsider his decision.

Stating that the post of Speaker deserves respect from the members, he said he would consider revoking his ruling only if DMDK legislator meets him and explains his conduct.