Mayor M. Anilkumar and his deputy K.A. Ansiya were at pains to clarify that the political battle between their respective parties — the CPI(M) and the CPI — was not what led to the embarrassing situation of the failure of the Finance Standing Committee to approve the Budget prior to its presentation in the Kochi Corporation Council.
Consequently, Section 290 of the Kerala Municipality Act kicked in, forcing the presentation of the Budget by the Corporation Secretary for the first time in the history of the civic body. Mr. Anilkumar admitted that there were disputes between the two parties over standing committees, and there were parleys to resolve them. However, no legal obligation of the council was stalled because of that.
“While the Deputy Mayor called a meeting of the Finance Standing Committee, she was not able to attend it owing to personal exigencies. There was no time left for convening the meeting with three days’ notice [before the Budget]. It was, therefore, beyond the realm of my authority to hold such a meeting, and I proceeded as per the Kerala Municipality Act as requested by the Deputy Mayor,” Mr. Anilkumar said.
“However, there was no difference of opinion between two as is evident from the fact that we prepared the Budget speech jointly. A Budget speech is a statement of the ruling alliance and an extension of the election manifesto in the case of the LDF,” he said.
Ms. Ansiya reaffirmed the Mayor’s statement claiming that she had kept the UDF members of the Finance Standing Committee in the loop. The discussions between the CPI and the CPI(M) were going on parallelly and had nothing to do with the committee’s functioning with regard to the Budget. She decried the alleged physical attack on her as not consistent with pro-women statements (of the UDF leaders) and said that she had no plans to lodge a complaint for the time being.
Mr. Anilkumar said the dispute between the two parties could be resolved only after the CPI(M) district secretary returned from abroad.
