Members of the Kollam Corporation, district panchayat, four municipalities, 11 block panchayats and 68 grama panchayats took oath of office at separate functions held here on Monday.
District Collector B.Abdul Nasar administered the oath to George D Kattil from Port division, senior most member of corporation, during the ceremony held at Kollam Town Hall.
Mr.George presided over the first meeting that followed the swearing-in of other 54 members. Elected members from the 26 divisions of Kollam district panchayat were sworn in at Jayam Memorial Hall.
District Collector administered the oath to N.S.Prasannakumar, the senior most member of the council elected from Kottankara division and subsequently Mr.Prasannakumar administered the oath to the remaining members.
He also presided over the first meeting of the council that followed the swearing-in ceremony. Among the persons present were K.Somaprasad, MP, MLAs, Mullakkara Ratnakaran and R.Ramachandran, CPI(M) State secretariat member and former Rajya Sabha MP, K.N. Balagopal, CPI(M) district secretary S.Sudevan, former district panchayat president C.Radhamani, vice president S Venugopal and other members.
Antigen test was done for all new members after the swearing in ceremony and the election of the panchayat president is scheduled to be held on December 30.
S.Podiyan Pillai, Jolly.P.Varghese, Arifa Teacher and M.Ansar were the first to swear in various municipalities. A total of 1,596 people who were elected to the three-tier local bodies in Kollam took oath on Monday.
