All Congress councillors suspended from budget meeting after commotion

Vadodara: All seven councillors from the opposition Congress in the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) were suspended from the budget meeting on Wednesday. The opposition said this was the first time in the history of the VMC that such action was taken.The suspension came after a commotion during the budget meeting, which began on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it was the turn of the opposition to speak. Traditionally, the opportunity was used to target the ruling party over civic issues and alleged irregularities, apart from speaking on the budget.When a Congress councillor spoke for a long time, other councillors demanded that the speech be curtailed. The opposition objected, saying the ruling BJP members were given enough time to speak on Tuesday and that the opposition should be allowed to speak freely. A commotion followed, and the opposition councillors came to the well of the house to make representations.Mayor Pinky Soni repeatedly told the opposition councillors to return to their seats, but the opposition did not budge. Soni then used powers vested in her under the Gujarat Provincial Municipal Corporations Act (GPMC) to suspend all seven opposition councillors from the budget meeting. The budget was passed after their suspension.Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Soni said, "A lot of effort went into preparation of the budget, and healthy discussions should take place." She said that enough opportunity was given to the opposition, but it seemed that they were interested in prolonging the proceedings. She added that when the opposition members rushed to the house, they were repeatedly requested to go back to their seats before the suspension.Leader of the Congress in the VMC, Chandrakant Shrivastav, said this was the first time in the history of the civic body that such suspensions took place. He said that it was an attempt to muffle the voice of the opposition. "We would raise issues and irregularities that would make the ruling party uncomfortable. The mayor was not acting on her own, but received instructions to do so," he said.A VMC functionary said that he did not hear of a councillor being suspended from a meeting for at least two decades. The councillors will be able to attend upcoming meetings of the board.--BOXBudget cleared without amendmentsAfter discussions for less than two days, the general board of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) cleared the annual budget of Rs 7,672.21 crore. The board did not accept any amendments suggested by opposition councillors. VMC commissioner Arun Mahesh Babu originally proposed a budget of Rs 7,609.63 crore.The standing committee raised the budget size to Rs 7,672.21 crore. For the budget meeting, the opposition Congress proposed 441 amendments, while suspended BJP councillor Ashish Joshi suggested one amendment. All the amendments were rejected by the board.