Councillors' husbands take part in meeting, zonal officer get GCC notice

CHENNAI: Despite the top brass of ruling party and Chennai Mayor R Priya warn the husbands of councillors not to intervene in Councillors' duties, the overbearing 'husbands' continue to take part in official duties. Fed up with this, the Greater Chennai Corporation has issued a notice to a zonal officer, who let the husbands in a ward committee meeting.

Chennai Corporation senior official said that a notice seeking explanation has been served to zonal officer of Tondiarpet. "Based on the response, action will be taken against the zonal officer, who did not followed the norms," the official said.

A few days ago, ward committee meeting for Tondiarpet zone was held at the zonal office in which husbands of women councillors were seen sitting behind them. This has attracted opposition from activists, including from Arappor Iyakkam, an anti-graft organisation.

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As per the norms, outsiders should not be allowed inside the ward committee meetings. Only the councillors of that particular zone and concerned officials should be allowed inside the meeting. While media persons are allowed to cover Chennai Corporation council meetings, they are also barred from covering ward committee meetings.

Ward committees are powerful body in the civic body as all the projects pertaining to the zones should be approved and proposed by those committees. Decisions of Ward committees will be placed before the council for final approval. Similar to the council meetings, ward committees would convene every month before the council meets.

Since most of the newly elected councillors are women, incidents of husbands taking over the councillors' seats at ward offices have been reported in several wards. Recently, DMK suspended a party cadre, who is also a husband of the city councillors, after he allegedly threatened police personnel on duty. Similarly, a video clip of a councillor's husband sitting on the official chair while the councillor seated next to him made rounds on social media.