MAPUSA
The director of panchayat had twice called a meeting to hold the election to the post of sarpanch but on both the occasions the meeting had to be adjourned for failure of receiving nomination to the post.
In the seven-member Assagao Panchayat, the post of sarpanch is reserved for a woman. The panchayat has two women as panchas.
After former sarpanch Priyanka Sangelkar was voted out of office on January 12, the first meeting for the election of the new sarpanch was called on March 7 which was attended by woman panch Suverna Sawant and panch Hanumant Naik.
In a tactical move, the dethroned sarpanch and the four panchas who had moved the no-trust motion against her did not attend the meeting.
The election could not take place as there was no member to second the only woman who was present for the meeting.
Consequently, a second meeting called on April 3 again resulted in a deadlock with history repeating itself. The five panchas including the former sarpanch did not attend the meeting.
The presiding officer in his report to the director of panchayats stated that the election to the post of the sarpanch could not be held, as no nomination was received for the post.
What effectively happened was that the only woman panch who had attended the meeting along with another panch member could not file her nomination, as there was no panch member to second her claim. “The four panchas and the former sarpanch deliberately did not attend the meeting to create a constitutional crisis so that they can run the whole show in the panchayat with the deputy sarpanch calling the shots,” said Panch Suverna Sawant.
Director of panchayats, Sandhya Kamat, acknowledged that it was a situation that put the smaller panchayats to a disadvantage. “At the moment there is no provision in the Goa Panchayati Raj Act to consider a nomination without a seconder. After the panchayat election I will move a note to the government to consider amending the Act so that nomination can be considered without a seconder,” Kamat said.
Former sarpanch, Priyanka Sangelkar, was elected to the top post soon after the panchayat election in 2012 with the support of four others. The group was affiliated to former water resources minister, Dayanand Mandrekar.
After four and half years, Sangelkar was voted out on January 12 by four members of her group “ Victor D’Souza (deputy sarpanch), Anand Kandolkar, Jallinder Gaonkar and Rajesh Naik. Deputy Sarpanch, Victor D’Souza
is now running the affairs
of the panchayat as the acting sarpanch.
