AAP councillors escorted out for disrupting EDMC special house meeting

The discussion proceeded after the 13 AAP councillors, including the four women leaders who threw the bangles, were escorted out

A special House meeting of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) on the pollution crisis in the city was disrupted after Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors, demanding revocation of the suspension of their fellow party councillors, hurled bangles at the mayor’s chair on Monday. The discussion proceeded after the 13 AAP councillors, including the four women leaders who threw the bangles, were escorted out.

The special session of the EDMC meeting was discussing the pollution crisis in the city. (Amal KS/Hindustan Times)

EDMC mayor Shyam Sunder Agarwal said that AAP councillors were trying to disrupt the discussion. “Since they were not ready to listen anything about the failures of the Kejriwal-led Delhi government in tackling the pollution menace, the women councillors tried to disrupt the house by merely raising slogans. They even reached to the seats of the BJP councillors and tried to scuffle with them in the well. Later, the police came in the house and took them away. After that, our 21 councillors discussed the action plan to control pollution in the EDMC area,” he said.

Fifteen AAP councillors were suspended on November 17 by the mayor after they allegedly disrupted a House session, seeking a discussion on rising dengue cases in the city even as the BJP councillors wanted to start off with the pollution crisis.

On Monday, the four AAP councillors, who were escorted out of the House, staged a protest outside even as the session continued and the BJP councillors accused the Delhi government of intentionally turning their back towards rising pollution levels in the national capital.

Agarwal said that the EDMC, with its 10 mechanical sweeping machines and 40 water sprinklers, is doing its best to control the pollution. “While the AAP councillors are trying to disrupt our pollution controlling exercises, the Delhi government is deliberately holding the EDMC’s legitimate funds. As a result of this fund crunch, we are facing difficulty in giving timely salaries to our employees,” he said.

AAP councillor and leader of opposition in the EDMC, Manoj Tyagi, said that all four AAP women councillors, led by Geeta Rawat, were demanding revocation of the suspension of AAP councillors. “They were also demanding the immediate suspension of a BJP councillor who had used ‘unparliamentary’ words against the women councillors from our party. When the requests made by the women councillors fell on deaf ears of the mayor, Rawat had no option other than to hurl bangles towards the mayor’s chair, as a token of protest,” he said.