MARGAO
Asserting that they have been disqualified by the Director of Panchayats for allegedly refusing permission to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s son Abhijat’s tourism project, Netravali Sarpanch Rajini Gaonkar and Deputy Abhijit Desai on Tuesday disclosed plans to knock the doors of the judiciary for justice.
A day after the Director of Panchayats disqualified the Netravali Sarpanch and Deputy Sarpanch, the duo said they will challenge the Panchayat Director’s order before the South district court in a day or two.
Addressing the media along with three other Netravali panchayat members, Deputy Sarpanch Abhijit Desai said the Panchayat Director had disqualified him and the Sarpanch since the panchayat had refused certain permissions to Chief Minister’s son Abhijat’s tourism project.
“If one goes through the Roznama proceedings, one will realise how the Panchayat Director had expedited the disqualification cases against me and the Sarpanch. There are dozens of cases pending before the Panchayat Director for years, but this case was heard even 3-4 times a month. This only goes to show that the Panchayat Director was under the influence of the government headed by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar,” Abhijit said. He pointed out that the administration had gone to the extent of filing externment cases against him when he had no past criminal background. “Am I a criminal that the administration had moved to extern me from the district. This is nothing but injustice done to me for rejecting the permissions sought by the Chief Minister’s son,” he alleged.
Giving an account of the parking and garbage fees imposed by the panchayat, the Deputy Sarpanch said the decision was unanimously taken by all the seven panchayat members in the interest of the village to generate revenue from the tourism activities. “There was a resolution adopted by the gram sabha, following a resolution of the panchayat body to levy the parking and garbage fees since Netravali was only earning revenue to the tune of around Rs 50,000 annually. If these resolutions, which were taken in the interest of the village, were bad the secretary should have guided the panchayat body. The Secretary refused to deposit the collection in the panchayat account,” he said.
