Udupi : Pandemonium broke out in the Udupi City Municipal Council (CMC) general meeting when a resident of a ward arrived to testify on behalf of a municipal councillor. On arrival at the well of the House to speak, he was manhandled by the ruling Congress councillors on June 29 and all hell broke lose.
The Ambagilu resident named Rony D’Mello had to bear the wrath of the Congress councilors and was later admitted to Ajjarkad Government Hospital for treatment.
Earlier, Kadiyali Councillor Geetha Shet unhappy with CMC handling Kadiyali temple issue, which falls within her ward limits went forward to tender her resignation letter to the CMC President citing she was unable to fulfil the demands of her ward people.
President Meenakshi Madhav Bannanje informed Geetha to bring such issues to her notice directly whenever problems occur. Geetha Shet summoned resident of her ward, Rony D’Mello during the meeting to testify on her behalf to overrule the allegation made by Congress Councilor Satish Puthran over a road inauguration issue. Geetha Seth, inorder to justify her commitment to ward members, swiftly went to the chair, took the mike from the president and gave it to Rony D’Mello to express his views. Infuriated by Geetha’s sudden action, Congress councillors rushed to the well of the house and manhandled him.
Rony D’Mello was rushed the hospital after police intervened to restore sanity. Chaotic scenes were observed in the meeting, where President Meenakshi Madhav Bannanje had to walk out of the house owing to the rude behaviour of the councillors from both the sides.
Talking to the media persons, Dinakar Shetty Herga termed manhandling a ward resident by ruling Congress councilors as totally wrong. “Everyone is welcome at the meeting to air their grievances but the manner in which the Congress councillors behaved is unacceptable and probably, the incident is first of its kind in the history of Udupi CMC”, narrated Dinakar Shetty Herga. If ruling party’s councillor cannot get an answer, then one can imagine the plight of a common man in Udupi, remarked Herga.
Talking to media persons, Meenakshi Madhav Bannanje said that this type of incident had never occurred before. Holding Geetha Shet responsible for the ruckus, Bannanje said the councilor should have brought the issue to her notice or of other officials in CMC. But bringing in a resident from her ward to the house during the CMC meeting without prior notice was unacceptable, she added and blamed the BJP for the incident accusing the party of hatching a plot to create pandemonium.
Speaking to media persons, Rony D’Mello who was at the receiving end and now undergoing treatment in Ajjarkad Government Hospital said,”On Geetha Shet’s repeated request, I went to testify in front of the councillors but unfortunately they all manhandled me for no fault of mine” and added, “None came to my rescue except Geetha Shet during the incident which has deeply me.”
BJP leaders like former MLA Raghupathy Bhat, Udupi District BJP President Mattat Rathnakar Hegde, former MP and minister Jayaprakash Hegde, Kuhiladi Suresh Nayak and top BJP leaders visited the Ajjarkad Hospital and enquired about the incident.
The meeting failed to arrive at any decision on pending issues as the monthly meeting of the Udupi CMC riddled in blame game, ultimately ended in chaos over road inauguration issue.
