Parties tell councillors to behave

JAIPUR: When the embattled JMC councillors sit for the extended session of the fifth Sadharan Sabha on Thursday, electorates will keep their fingers crossed over its outcome.
The shameful showdown at the JMC on Monday reflected the councillors lack of faith in their own leaders.
Meanwhile, BJP’s senior leaders in the state met the councillors and according to party president Arun Chaturvedi, they have been asked to maintain the decorum in the council.Chaturvedi said “Our councillors are very much under the party’s control, but if some one provokes, the reaction is natural”.
Chaturvedi was referring to the allegation levelled against two senior BJP leaders Ashok Parnami and Kalicharan Sarraf by some Congress councillors during a discussion in the last sitting. The party chief maintained that his partymen never started the trouble, rather are drawn in to the scuffle raked up by the irresponsible acts of Congressmen.
Chaturvedi said the Congress led by mayor Jyoti Khandelwal should not by-pass the Municipal Act 2009 that directs the mayor to respect the majority voice. “The city has suffered and no progress has been made on any front in the past one year due to the misconduct at the meetings,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Congress also condemned the unruly behaviour of the councillors. State Congress spokesperson Satyendra Raghav told TOI that PCC chief C P Joshi will sit with the councillors after he returns from the tour. Though, he maintained that Congress councillors have never been involved in any rowdy act inside the council hall.
Raghav said, “The BJP councillors often hold the house to ransom. They pick up fights on slightest of provocation”. The report submitted by the mayor to UDH minister Shanti Dhariwal will be seriously looked in to, he claimed.
Distancing himself from allegations, senior BJP leader and MLA Kalicharan Sarraf said in a democratic set-up, there is no place for rowdism and hooliganism inside the house.