Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 20 Sep: Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) vice president Toko Mina on Friday levelled serious allegations over the goings on at the Pasighat Municipal Council (PMC) in East Siang district.
Referring to the PMC office, from which the deputy councillor and five other councillors were reportedly stripped off their powers and functions since the day of their induction in 2020, Mina said: “Ever since the completion of the election in 2020, no meeting has been conducted by the PMC, due to which later deputy councillor Rebeka Panyang Megu, along with five other councillors, joined the Congress after being elected on BJP tickets.”
Mina said that there has always been a disparity when a woman is a leader. She alleged that “the PMC chief councillor is manipulating everything and the power is only in her hands.”
Mina further alleged that the chief councillor didn’t conduct any meeting for long, even after the elections were over, and stressed on “equal distribution of power and functions where a chief adviser should be appointed.”
“The aftermath of the election process did not take place according to the rules endorsed under the Arunachal Pradesh Municipal Act,” she continued. “If there is a loophole in the government system, how is it expected to function better?”
She also questioned why there is no provision for a no-confidence motion, and demanded “voluntary resignation of the chief councillor, as she has lost majority support.”
The APCC has also sought disciplinary action against the East Siang deputy commissioner for “deferring the no-confidence motion without citing any reason.”
It added that it would “resort to democratic means of protest in every municipal ward and the DC office of East Siang district.”
There are currently only two BJP representatives in the PMC – the chief councillor and a councillor.
The councillors who joined the Congress party along with the deputy councillor are Yalop Nyigang Yomso, Ponung Radeng Saring, Kaling Doruk, Okeng Tayeng, and Mumcy Dupak Lollen.
