Kochi Mayor adjourns council meeting after declaring passage of agenda

The potentially final council meeting of the current term of the Kochi Corporation lasted barely 30 minutes after Mayor M. Anilkumar declared the 100-odd agenda items as passed and adjourned the session in the face of opposition from the United Democratic Front (UDF) over the manner in which the meeting was convened without allowing any discussion on the agenda.

Mr. Anilkumar, who replaced Deputy Mayor K.A. Ansiya who initially chaired the meeting, said it had been clarified during the previous council session itself that the next meeting would be limited to approving work files and would not entail discussions. He added that councillors who opposed the process may withdraw their respective agenda items and consider the rest as approved, before leaving the council hall.

UDF councillors then staged a protest inside the hall, condemning what they described as the abrupt dismissal of the meeting without discussions. They viewed it as a tactic to avoid a debate on construction activities related to the renovation of the Kaloor stadium, reportedly carried out without the Corporation’s no-objection certificate. The councillors raised slogans before exiting the hall.

At the outset, M.G. Aristotle, UDF Parliamentary Party secretary, objected to the nature of the meeting, questioning whether it had been convened as an emergency or special meeting, since the notice mentioned both. When the Corporation secretary clarified that it was an emergency meeting, Mr. Aristotle countered citing the Kerala Municipality Act, which, he said, stipulates that an emergency meeting can be held only for a specific issue. He asked how the agenda could contain over 100 items.

LDF councillors V.A. Sreejith and Bency Benny defended the agenda, saying that it included matters relevant to all councillors, not just those from the ruling front.

During the heated exchange, a power outage silenced the sound system. To everyone’s surprise, Mr. Aristotle produced a personal cordless microphone and continued speaking. He later explained that he had brought the mic after discovering that the new council hall allowed the Mayor to switch off councillors’ microphones from his chair, a feature revealed during the inaugural meeting in the hall on October 29.

UDF councillor Henry Austin questioned the alleged distribution of a handbook printed by the Corporation listing the achievements of the present governing committee at a cost of ₹50 lakh by CPI(M) activists. “How can a document belonging to the Corporation be used as a party leaflet? We want to know how many copies have been printed and what system is in place for its distribution,” he said.