No-confidence motion against deputy mayor again remains undecided

The no-confidence motion against deputy mayor, Parvaiz Qadri, remained undecided on Monday owing to the lack of quorum at the SMC general council special session.

This is for the second time in the past two months that the no-confidence motion against Qadri remained undecided due to lack of quorum.

   

The SMC (Srinagar Municipal Corporation) had on Sunday issued a notification to hold the session for the floor test of the deputy mayor.

SMC Secretary Akbar Sofi told Greater Kashmir that only 40 members were present while as the quorum required 53. “Therefore, the session could not be taken up and was adjourned,” he said.

Earlier, only 36 members made the quorum. But on 26 October 2020, the government amended the rule and increased number from 36 to 56 to form the quorum.

An official said that all the 40 councilors at the session today agitated against implementing the amendment retrospectively.

“We filed the no-confidence motion on 23 October. Under rules, the floor test was to be held within 48 hours after the acceptance of motion, which means by 25 October,” said a group of agitated councilors.

“The amendment which raised the quorum to 56 members was made on 26 October, and therefore is not applicable to our motion which was moved and accepted before the amendment was made,” they said, adding that the authorities cannot give the amendment retrospective effect.

The forty councilors who had come to attend the session said that they stood in support of the motion.

SMC Commissioner, Gazanfar Ali, said that the “motion is alive” and can be taken up at any point of time. “It remained undecided due to lack of quorum. Therefore, it is alive and can be taken up anytime,” he said.

Soon after the adjournment of session, former Srinagar Mayor Junaid Mattu told reporters that the councilors of the National Conference and the BJP abstained from session.

“This is the third instance where coporators of the NC and the BJP have voted ‘similarly’ and together in the SMC. This vindicates my stand that the NC and the BJP continue to be in an alliance. By abstaining from today’s motion, the coporators elected on the BJP tickets have yet again extended their support to the NC,” he added.

Qadri was elected as the deputy mayor after Sheikh Imran lost the floor test. He is also acting mayor after Mattu lost the test on June 17.

On 27 August, this year, the first no-confidence motion against Qadri also remained undecided after quorum had not turned up. At that time, only 26 members were present against required number of 36 to form the quorum.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 + ten =