the goan I network
SANGUEM
While the post of sarpanch lies vacant and is yet to be filled in some panchayats, the Netravali village in Sanguem has faced a peculiar situation of having two sarpanchas in the panchayat.
While one Sarpanch has been reinstated by the order of the District Court after she had been ousted by an order passed by the Director of Panchayats (DoP), the other sarpanch occupies the post after being elected in June.
Incidentally, the Director of Panchayats Gopal Parsekar in a letter dated September 16 had instructed the Sanguem BDO to direct new Sarpanch Gaonkar to vacate the post following orders passed by the District Court and to pave way for the old sarpanch Rajani Gaonkar to occupy the post.
But what has complicated matters is that there is no provision in law that gives powers to BDO to direct the elected sarpanch to step down without orders from appropriate court.
Till the time there is no clarity in this regard, Netravali panchayat will continue to have two sarpanchas unless Archana Gaonkar decides to resign from the post on her own and allow Rajani Gaonkar to occupy the post.
The peculiar situation at the Netravali panchayat arose when Sarpanch Rajani Gaonkar and Deputy Sarpanch Abhijit Desai were suspended from their respective posts and also from the membership of the Netravali Panchayat by the DoP in February.
The sarpanch and deputy were suspended as members after they were accused of collecting toll from the public to enter Netravali village without valid procedures and for siphoning funds.
Aggrieved with the order passed by the DoP, Rajani Gaonkar and Abhijit Desai challenged the DoP order in the District Court, which later set aside and quashed the order passed by the DoP.
However, while the matter was before the District Court, the DoP in March had issued directions to the Sanguem BDO to conduct fresh elections to the post of sarpanch and deputy sarpanch.
Accordingly, BDO conducted fresh elections and Gaonkar was elected sarpanch. However, the post of deputy remained vacant as there were no nominations for the post.
The District Court has now quashed and set aside the order passed by DoP against Gaonkar and Desai.
The DoP directed the BDO at Sanguem to comply with the order passed by the District Court and pave the way for Rajani Gaonkar and Abhijit Desai to occupy the post of Sarpanch and Deputy Sarpanch respectively, while simultaneously directing BDO to instruct Archana Gaonkar to step down from the post of Sarpanch.
Speaking to The Goan, Archana said she has not received any communication from the DoP or from the BDO as of now.
