Bedlam in town panchayat meet

Chennai: Many passersby would have guessed it to be a street fight, when councillors from the ruling AIADMK and DMK clashed during the local body council meeting at Perungalathur on Thursday.

The councillors traded blows and used the objects around to strike at each other, finally leaving one of them with severe head injury.  The council meeting of Perungalathur town panchayat on Thursday turned out to be a slugfest  between ruling party and opposition DMK councillors.

The town panchayat has 15 wards in which eight have DMK councillors while three others had sent AIADMK representatives, a couple from the Congress party, one BJP councillor and an independent candidate.

From the beginning of the council meet, the DMK councillors raised the status of long pending civic works in the town panchayat to the chairman. The councillors said that the frequent transfer of executive officers was the reason behind poor implementation of civic works.

Walking out of the hall, DMK councillors entered into the EO Chandra Kumar’s room and demanded the photo of former CM Jayalalithaa be removed from the wall.

After the officer refused to budge, the councillors started to hang a photo of DMK chief M. Karunanidhi which led to angry protests from AIADMK men. The two warring groups were involved in a nasty brawl scaring away the public who reached the panchayat office.

Councillor Pugazhendhi received head injuries and was admitted in hospital for treatment. The local police intervened and pacified the two groups which later sat on a protest against each other. Both AIADMK and DMK councillors registered their respective complaints at Peerkankaranai police station.