MAPUSA
The Director of Municipal Administration disqualified Tarak Arolkar as the councillor of Mapusa Municipal Council thus paving the way for holding a by-election in the civic body.
In his order, DMA Gurudas Pilarnekar said that Arolkar ceased to be a councillor of ward 7 of MMC and directed him to vacate all offices held by him as a councillor.
“Under Section 49 of the Goa Municipalities Act, 1968 a person who ceases to be a councillor for any reason shall vacate all the offices held by him by virtue of his being a councillor,” Pilarnekar said.
In the current setup, Tarak Arolkar was elected as the chairman of the lighting of public streets and library committee besides being a member of the public works, sanitation and drainage committee of MMC.
The DMA’s order was a corollary to the recent order of the Scrutiny Committee for verification of caste certificate which declared that the other backward class (OBC) certificate issued to Arolkar was not verified and directed the Deputy Collector of Bardez to cancel the certificate.
In pursuance to the direction of the Scrutiny Committee, the Deputy Collector of Bardez cancelled the OBC certificate issued to the councillor.
“The Scrutiny Committee has observed that Tarak Arolkar got the benefit of OBC certificate and therefore was elected from ward 7 of the MMC which was reserved for OBC,” the DMA said.
The DMA has also sent the copy of the order to the Secretary of Goa State Election Commission with a request to fill up the vacancy as per Section 50 of the Goa Municipalities Act, 1968.
It may be recalled former councillor Francisco (Franky) Carvalho had approached the Directorate Social Welfare challenging the OBC certificate issued to Arolkar.
WILL CHALLENGE ORDER, SAYS AROLKAR: Pointing to the speed with which the government machinery has been moving and pronouncing one order after the other, the beleaguered councillor Tarak Arolkar said it showed that the government was marshalling all its means to disqualify him.
“My petition is in the High Court on this particular issue and despite that, they have gone ahead and disqualified me. This is unconstitutional and I will challenge it in court,” Arolkar said.
