The general board of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) that met Tuesday for discussions for the first time since the January 18 Harni boat tragedy, in which 12 students and two teachers were killed, witnessed a storm as Congress corporators sat on the floor in protest seeking action against responsible officers of the civic body as well as a compensation for the victims.
The Congress corporators were backed by corporator Ashish Joshi of the BJP who had already written a letter to the VMC Commissioner on January 22 demanding strict action against officers concerned for “negligence” in the case.
On Tuesday, as the VMC General Board meeting was convened, Congress leaders, including Ami Ravat, Chandrakant Shrivastav and Pushpa Waghela, sat on the floor seeking a compensation of Rs 50 lakh per victim from the VMC, which has cited the clause of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the contractor to decide the liability of the incident.
The Opposition leaders had also submitted a memorandum to the VMC Commissioner Monday seeking a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the families of the deceased. Even as BJP leaders like corporator Manoj Patel, who is also the Ruling Party Leader in the VMC, and Standing Committee Chairman Dr Sheetal Mistry tried to pacify the Congress leaders, stating that the issue should “not be politicised”, the opposition leaders demanded that the general board must resolve that the MoU signed between M/s Kotia Projects and the civic body was “improper” to begin with and led to the tragedy.
Soon, BJP corporator Joshi also delivered a fiery address giving an ‘ultimatum’ to the Municipal Commissioner to “ascertain the liability of the officers concerned” by the next general board meeting and threatened to join the Congress corporators on the floor.
“I raised the issue of fixing the responsibility of the civic body in the case; I said that the VMC cannot escape the moral duty as it is the first responsible party in the case, the contractor comes after that. The VMC cannot escape this. I have already written a letter to the Commissioner on January 22 and asked for the same but if action is not taken this time, I will also sit on the floor of the general board in protest,” Joshi said.
