Code of conduct: A flop on day one

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The code of conduct which was prescribed for councillors in the City Corporation Council after a detailed all-party meet convened by the Mayor a few days back, went up in smoke the very first day. Though the initial minutes on Monday gave the hope of a more well-mannered Council in the making, the spell was broken without delay with the discussion on a resolution introduced in the Council about the UDF Budget leading to a pandemonium in no time.  The Council meetings, since the start of the new LDF Council, have been drowned in noises, allegations and walkouts. The eight months have seen no major discussions on the Corporation’s financial status, the stages of its various projects or any healthy topics coming up for development in the newly added wards. Often the lengthy discussions ended up in hastily approving the official agenda and Standing Committee agendas had turned out to be an easy tool for the ruling members  to pass their agendas without much protest from the opposite side.  A stark example of this was the inclusion of  a ‘CPM pill’ in one of the agendas passed by the Health Standing committee regarding the purchase of various medicines under it. Though in the next council, the BJP leaders referred to the inclusion of the pill and questioned what it was all about, there was no answer from the ruling side.  It is in this context and the rising protest among the councillors and some senior leaders that the Council time was being wasted, that the Mayor circulated a code of conduct note among the councillors. It said that the majority of councillors in the Council are new. There are others who are experienced too. The Mayor went on to say that being people who are daily in contact with the public and their issues, it is up to the councillors to highlight those issues in the Council and take up healthy discussions. She had attached a detailed list of the rules in the Municipality Act to seek the support of the councillors in this respect. The enclosure ran into nine pages. In the note, dated July 5, she asked all councillors to go through the pages and behave in a proper manner from the next Council. However, as Deputy Mayor G Happykumar put it, the Council seems stubborn against any change. On Monday, it was just like any other Council, with political talk and mud-slinging topping the list of their agenda.