Vadodara civic body's General Board meeting adjourned over Pahalgam deaths; 66th ‘adjournment for mourning' in four years
So far, the current board has seen 40% adjournments with leaders of Opposition stating that they were mere excuses by the ruling party to put off issues that could create an uproar against it.
On Thursday, Mayor Pinky Soni said, 'The proceedings of the General Board…have been adjourned after observing two minutes of silence in mourning of the victims of April 22 terror attack at Pahalgam as well as the martyred soldiers and civilians during Operation Sindoor, which was in response to the Pahalgam attack. We also mourned the deaths of former Union Minister Girija Vyas and former Gujarat Health minister Hema Acharya. This is as per the practice of VMC. The next General Board will be held on May 19.'
Records of the VMC, accessed by The Indian Express, show that since the formation of the current BJP-led board in March 2021, following the civic body polls in February that year, a total of 183 General Board meetings — including the one on Thursday — had been convened. Of these, 66 were adjourned (see box) for mourning the deaths of public figures or tragedies such as the Morbi bridge collapse in 2022, Harni Boat tragedy in Vadodara in January 2024, and Rajkot TRP game zone fire in May 2024.
Among the personalities whose deaths resulted in adjournment were Vadodara-based former India cricket coach Anshuman Gaekwad, actor Manoj Kumar, singers Lata Mangeshkar, Purushottam Upadhyay and Anoop Jalota, and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
An official of the VMC tells The Indian Express, 'We generally pay tribute to departed former Prime Ministers, former Chief Ministers, former Union and state cabinet Ministers, local elected representatives and other personalities who have been conferred with national awards such as Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna. Apart from this any major tragedy, anywhere in the country, that results in loss of life and casualty is also taken into consideration.'
The official further said, 'There is no written rule but it has been a practice since the inception of the VMC… The practices also differ from one corporation to another. It could also depend on the leaders of the board, who may decide to pay a silent homage and continue with the proceedings. But it has not happened in a long time.'
As per the rules of Proceedings of the Corporation, under the Gujarat Provincial Municipal Corporations Act (GPMC), 1964, it is mandatory for 'at least one ordinary' General Board meeting to be convened each month, 'which shall be held not later than the twentieth day of the month'. At VMC, generally the General Board meetings that see actual discussions spill over to the following month. The official says, 'The meeting of May 15 was originally meant for the month of April as the meeting held the previous month as per the GPMC provisions was also adjourned for some reason (Deesa tragedy and the death of actor Manoj Kumar)… So, the next General Board meeting on May 19 will see one session from 5pm to 6pm, which will be the meeting for the month of April to discuss pending works and then, 6pm onwards, (it will be held) for the month of May as per the rules, before the 20th of the month.'
As per the GPMC, the mayor can adjourn the meetings 'with the consent of majority of councillors present… to a later hour on the same day or to any other day… but no business shall be transacted (except exceptions provided) and no proposition shall be discussed at any adjourned meeting other than the business or proposition remaining undisposed of the meeting from which the adjournment took place'.
Notably, each corporator of the VMC receives an honorarium of Rs 500 per meeting for up to five meetings — including General Board, Standing Committee or other Committee meetings — held during the month. 'Whether the meeting goes on or is adjourned, the corporators get paid Rs 500 per meeting. The limit is Rs 2,500 per corporator per month. So, those who are members of other committees can receive the honorarium for up to five meetings per month. In several months, up to three General Board meetings are called due to adjournments… For instance, the General Board meeting on May 19 will be counted as two separate meetings — one for April and one for the month of May, with regard to the honorarium,' the official said.
Even as VMC maintains that adjourning the General Boards to condole deaths of public figures is an 'unchangeable practice', several leaders have urged the civic body to break the tradition and conduct public work after paying homage to the departed persons.
In August 2024, in a letter to the Vadodara mayor, BJP corporators Ashish Joshi (before he was suspended from the party earlier this month), Parul Patel, Punam Shah and Snehal Patel had said that the VMC 'must not adjourn' its General Board meeting 'to mourn' their deaths whenever the day arises. The letter came days after VMC had ignored the request of late Congress leader and former deputy mayor Chirag Zaveri's wife to not adjourn the General Board meeting but rather continue with public work as a 'homage' to the departed leader, who passed away in July 2024.
The BJP corporators wrote, 'It has been a practice of VMC to pay homage to victims of tragedies and departed elected representatives by adjourning the proceedings of the General Board. Since April 1, 2024, 50 per cent of the General Board meetings have been adjourned in mourning and so, there is a feeling that this practice needs to change.'
In April, Mayor Soni orally announced during the General Board meeting that the practice of conducting two meetings per month was to be 'ceased' in line with the convention followed in other Municipal Corporations in the state of holding only one meeting per month. An official said that in Ahmedabad and Surat, the Municipal Corporations rarely adjourn an entire day's work in 'mourning' as it has been a practice to hold only one General Board meeting per month.
The Congress leaders, who have also sat on dharnas on the floor of the General Board protesting adjournments on at least three occasions in the last one-and-a-half years feel that the meetings could be adjourned for some time but work should be conducted for most part of the day.
The Leader of Opposition in VMC, Chandrakant Shrivastav, says, 'Initially, we used to have four meetings a month to discuss issues. Now the BJP has decided and passed down instructions to their elected leaders to have only one meeting… So accordingly, the Mayor has made the announcement to that effect. People of Vadodara have given the BJP a mandate but they do not want to give people's representatives a chance to raise issues. It is our job to draw their attention to the shortcomings of the system but they do not want to hear or allow us to be heard…'
Congress leader Ami Ravat feels that adjournments in mourning are an 'excuse' to put off issues that could create an uproar against the ruling party. Ravat says, 'Some times, the meetings are adjourned and put off for over a month because they want to delay (discussions on) burning issues and are looking for reasons to prevent the Opposition from asking questions, under the excuse of paying homage. There are so many public figures, we can pay homage (to them) and continue our work… We have had a practice where the General Board is held on two days for discussion and passing resolutions, which is good… Even if there is an adjournment, the meetings should be held in the same month on the next working day, and not weeks later when people have no memory of the issue.'
Despite repeated attempts, Mayor Soni did not revert to calls and text messages seeking comments on the issue.
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