Aldona p’yat members hold dharna, say secretary playing ‘disappearing’ games

Around eight inspections that were scheduled on Friday had to be called off as the panchayat secretary played a disappearing game and failed to turn up.

Just a week back, Aldona Sarpanch Subhash Raut had written to the director of panchayats about the problems faced by the panchayat members due to irregular presence of panchayat secretary, who holds additional charge of Aldona.

“On the request of the sarpanch and the ruling group, the director had directed the panchayat secretary to remain present in Aldona on every alternate day from 9 am to 1 pm. But the secretary has failed to adhere to the director’s order,” said Shukradhini Polle, Deputy Sarpanch who is officiating as acting sarpanch.

She said the panchayat members had no problem if the secretary adheres to the direction of the director and comes to the panchayat every alternate day without fail.

She further disclosed that the panchayat members need to hold two fortnightly meetings but cannot do so in absence of the secretary.

“The secretary is yet to present the minutes of the fortnightly meeting which was held last month. How are we going to respond to the public?” she asked.

She said Aldona was an “A class” panchayat and needed a full-time panchayat secretary due to workload. “The secretary is deliberately not attending to the works in Aldona on the instructions of the local MLA,” Polle alleged.

The deputy sarpanch said that they had a 15-minute dharna on Friday to highlight the difficulty of the Aldona panchayat.

“If this situation continues, next time we will hold a dharna along with the aggrieved public in front of the office of the director of panchayat,” Polle said.