Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, April 25: The tour of Municipal Councillors and officials to Spain to study Smart City Proposal has created another storm with the opposition benches alleging discrimination by the BJP dominated civic body.
According to reports, elected Councillors from the Congress party levelled the allegations as not a single elected member from other political parties was included in the delegation. Councillors from other political parties have also flayed the study tour to Spain as utter waste of government money. Five BJP Councillors and two senior officials from the Municipal Council have recently been deputed to Spain for a Smart City Workshop.
Speaking to Andaman Sheekha, Councillor of Ward no. 8, a Congress leader, Mr K Ganeshan claimed that only Councillors from the BJP, which dominates the Council were selected for the tour. “Such discrimination against elected Councillors from other political parties is totally unaccepted. Moreover, the general public were also not informed about the updates of the visit,” he claimed.
Former Councillor from Ward no. 6, Mr Azizur Rehman dubbed the study tour to Spain as total waste of public money. “Instead of deputing Councillors, the Municipal Council should have brought some experts from foreign country to Andaman to interact with local engineers; it would’ve proved more beneficial for the civic body. It remains to be what the delegation learns from the tour and implements in the city,” he added.
