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Chandigarh: 9 table agendas passed sans requisite quorum, show minutes of meeting confirm
According to the minutes of the meeting, 16 table agendas were brought into the House in the last hour. A table agenda is an extra topic or document handed to meeting participants right at the meeting table, without any advance notice or prior sharing.
Amid the controversy surrounding the table agenda worth ₹227 crore being passed without discussion in the previous MC House meeting on July 31 resulting in backlash by the opposition and also BJP councillors, the minutes of this particular House meeting released on Tuesday indicate as many as nine table agendas were passed without the requisite quorum of councillors required to be present in the House.
According to the minutes of the meeting, 16 table agendas were brought into the House in the last hour. A table agenda is an extra topic or document handed to meeting participants right at the meeting table, without any advance notice or prior sharing.
While the initial table agendas included routine items like provision for cash in lieu of rain coats and gum boots for MC workers, reconstruction of footpath which were passed, the controversial agenda item worth ₹227 crore was numbered 13. The particular agenda was not only the costliest but also the expenditure amount was not written along with the subject as is the norm with all other agendas.
According to the minutes released on Tuesday, secretary MC had pointed out during discussion of the sixth table agenda that the quorum of the House was incomplete.
The quorum is required as per section 58 (1) of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (extension to Chandigarh Act 1994) which states that the quorum necessary for transaction of business at a meeting of the MC shall be one third of its total members.
Councillor Damanpreet Singh had stated that members are “just coming” as their belongings are still in the House. At that point councillor Harjeet Singh entered the House and mayor Saurabh Joshi requested to call the other members to complete the quorum.
As the quorum was still incomplete, the mayor then wanted to know if any councillor was present online for the meeting.
To this, councillor Gurbax Rawat replied that councillor Kanwarjeet Rana was present online.
Reliable sources confirmed that there is no provision in MC to complete the quorum by calling councillors online. Moreover, as per the minutes and also the video of the House meeting uploaded on MC’s official Youtube channel, no one confirmed if Rana ever joined the meeting online. The IT department made no such confirmation.
In an apparent violation of rules, the mayor then said that all table agendas could thus be passed in anticipation by the House.
A day after the House meeting, BJP councillors as well as those of the Opposition AAP and Congress raised a hue and cry about how the table agendas were passed without discussion with the particular agenda item number 13 costing ₹227 crores -one third of the entire budget of the corporation- being brought in at the last moment.
Quotes
When contacted, a senior MC official denied that the quorum was not complete and said that if the minutes reflect that the quorum was not complete, then a correction will be made. “We had ensured that the quorum was complete when the table agendas were passed, there is no doubt about that. If minutes reflect otherwise, we will get those corrected,” said an MC official.
“I did join online, but was not aware of what was happening,” said Rana.
When contacted, BJP councillor Kanwarjeet Rana said he had left the House early for some personal work and was provided with a link to join online, which he did but he was not aware of what was being discussed.
“I merely joined for four to five minutes online and was not aware of the agendas,” he said.
