To protect themselves from the brickbats that may come their way, Congress corporators in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) wore helmets at General Board Meeting of the corporation held Tuesday.
The opposition wore the head gear to protest 'bottle-throwing' incident in previous board meeting. Before the meeting, almost 40 Congress corporators shouted slogans outside the AMC building on Tuesday, wearing helmets all the time.
"In the last board meeting, BJP corporators threw bottles at us injuring one of the woman corporators. We are wearing helmets (this meeting) to protest against this misbehaviour. It is not safe to sit in a board meeting without helmets as anybody can be injured," said Badruddin Shaikh, leader of opposition - AMC.
Shaikh, during the zero hour, brought up issue of AMC's revenue income and capital income and also how the civic body is facing a conundrum of low income and inflated expenditure.
"Total expected revenue should have been Rs451 crore, as of today. But we have witnessed only Rs200 crore (as income) so far," said Shaikh.
When quizzed on this matter, revenue committee chairman, Sunil Shah said, "We have doubled income, thanks to advertising and campaign to seal commercial property which hadn't paid the property tax. Citizens as brand ambassadors has inspired hundred others to pay their taxes."
"We have collected Rs326 crore this year, up from Rs302 crore last year," added Shah. Moreover Shaikh, during the zero hours, opposed appointment of private consultants for city's development work.
"We are relying on private contractors for picking up garbage containers and garden maintenance. Why can't we manage this work independently?" he said.
In response to this query, Mayor Asit Vora said that due to this public private partnership (PPP), AMC had won the 'national award for best implementation of basic services to urban poor' at New Delhi recently.
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