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8 AAP councillors suspended, marshalled out of House
AAP councillor Jasbir Singh Laddi had also broken glasses kept on the table while being dragged out by marshals
For the second time in a row, councillors of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were suspended and forcibly removed by marshals from the General House meeting of the Chandigarh municipal corporation on Tuesday, on the orders of city mayor Anup Gupta.
The action was taken against eight AAP councillors, including—leader of opposition Damanpreet Singh, Yogesh Dhingra, Kuldeep Kumar, Prem Lata, Anju Katyal, Suman Devi, Jaswinder Kaur and Neha—after the Congress and BJP councillors demanded apology from AAP councillors for terming them ‘thieves’ and ‘corrupts’ during a press conference by AAP spokesperson Malwinder Singh Kang on June 14. The five other AAP councillors in the civic body had also walked out from the meeting and alleged “injustice”.
Opposing the suspension, Prem Lata broke glass bangles and threw them at senior deputy mayor Kanwarjit Singh Rana, MC commissioner Anindita Mitra and MC secretary Gurinder Sodhi whereas Yogesh Dhingra had threatened the secretary for calling out names of suspended councillors. AAP councillor Jasbir Singh Laddi had also broken glasses kept on the table while being dragged out by marshals. Mayor Anup Gupta and councillors had sought FIR against AAP councillors for trying to hurt MC officers and vandalising MC’s property.
The controversy started when the House had passed all three key agendas on solid waste management in the city, including setting up of the new processing plant, despite Congress councillors’ protests and AAP councillors’ suspension on June 6. After the meeting, MC had taken councillors and nine Dadumajra residents on a study tour to Goa to study the waste management plant there, which was also set up on the recommendations of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI). While AAP councillors had boycotted the tour, Congress councillors had attended it.
The 8 AAP councillors, along with Malwinder Singh Kang, had then held a press conference and had accused BJP and Congress of making money from the Dadumajra garbage dump.
The Congress and BJP councillors, during the house meeting on Tuesday, demanded apology from AAP councillors over their comments and graft allegations but AAP councillors said that first local MP Kirron Kher should apologise for abusing AAP councillors in the June 6 house meeting. All 13 AAP councillors were suspended on June 6 after they had a heated verbal spat with local BJP MP Kirron Kher.
In a similar action during the MC House meeting in December 2022, the mayor had suspended eight councillors and five more – four from the AAP and one from the Congress – were removed from the House by marshals.
Unconstitutional, planned: AAP
“Congress is also scared along with BJP as both parties gathered in the well of the house and raised slogans against AAP. Damanpreet didn’t use any profanity. Regardless of the Chandigarh municipal corporation Act, BJP’s remote control Mayor Anoop Gupta, while flouting the constitution, neither allowed Aam Aadmi Party councillors to speak and was taken out by marshals,” said AAP city chief Pradeep Chhabra.
Damanpreet Singh said, “Today, important issues like dumping ground, allotment of vendor site to BJP office bearers in Sector 22, increase in parking rates, misleading on sewer cess were to be discussed and it was BJP’s plan to suspend AAP councillors and approve the agendas without opposition.”
