The newly-elected Delhi mayor’s first meeting of the MCD House was marred by pandemonium and physical exchange of blows between the women councillors of the two main parties here on Monday.
As the House convened, the issues of non-payment of pension to the old and widows for the past nine months and delayed payments to the contractors handling Commonwealth Games works came up for discussion.
Yogender Chandolia of BJP, who is set to become the MCD standing committee chairman, maintained that pension was being released in three wards in his area. To this, T.R. Sablania of Congress dared him to show the wards where pension was being released.
As the argument heated up, Chandolia alleged that the Leader of the Opposition Jai Kishan Sharma has threatened to give him a rough time in the standing committee. His party colleague Sarita Chowdhary also joined in Chandolia’s support, while Congress councillor Usha Gupta tried to oppose her. It is alleged that Ms Gupta slapped Ms Chowdhary, who retorted by trying to slap her back but another Congress councillor Nafisa was hit.
All hell broke loose with members climbing on table and raising slogans. Congress members staged a walkout following which the election of two members, both of the BJP, to the education committee was completed.
Talking to this newspaper, mayor P.R. Sawhney blamed Congress councillors for the unruly behaviour in the House. “They did it intentionally because they knew that their members would not get elected to the committee,” he said.
Mr Sharma, however, said he would take up the matter with the President. On the other hand, Mr Chandolia claimed that he would approach the court and also the SC/ST Commission as he was being harassed by the Congress councillors because he was a Dalit leader.
Meanwhile, outside the Town Hall, the contractors threatened to stop work if their payments pending for the past 15 months were not cleared. The contractors alleged that the MCD was not clearing their payments amounting to Rs 600 crores for the projects executed in connection with the Commonwealth Games-2010.