OLD GOA
Se Old Goa Sarpanch Nilkant Bhomkar on Saturday challenged the legality of the no-confidence motion, even as he was ousted from office after the motion was passed against him by 5-4 votes on Saturday.
With his ouster, Bhomkar became the first sarpanch to be ousted in the current tenure of panchayats and probably the one with the shortest stint of barely four days.
Janita Madkaikar, Tulsidas Kavlekar, Vishwas Kuttikar, Archita Painginkar and Pradnya Fadte voted in favour of the motion, while Nilkant Bhomkar, Namrata Bhomkar, Megasham Parvatkar and Vishal Volvoikar voted against.
However, the motion did not pass off smoothly with Bhomkar questioning the legality of the no-confidence motion.
“Till date, I have not been handed the certificate of sarpanch by the presiding officer and I never took charge of the panchayat. After the election fiasco on Monday, the BDO had, in fact, told the media that the sarpanch’s election had been declared null and void,” Bhomkar said.
“I was surprised to learn that a no-confidence was moved against me immediately on Tuesday.”
Bhomkar further stated that a no-confidence motion is moved only when members of the panchayat lose trust in a sarpanch. “Here, I was not even given a chance to perform. On what ground was the motion moved,” he questioned. He further objected to the process of taking up the motion by show of hands. “This is not right as some panchas are left with no choice but to take side of a particular camp, due to threats,”
he added.
“I was advised to take the matter to court but I don’t have got ill-gotten wealth to waste. I have put down my objections in writing and submitted the same to the observer,” said Bhomkar.
Bhomkar said that he was happy even in his loss. “In politics, someone has to win and someone has to lose. It is part of the game,” he added, while stating that the support received from the media and public after the Monday fiasco was overwhelming and that he was thankful to everybody.
Meanwhile, Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar’s camp was not willing to speak to the media and initially even instructed the panchayat staff not to allow the media inside the office. However, only after the intervention of the observer and EOVP Anil Dhumaskar was the media allowed entry.
Asked why the no-confidence motion was moved even though Bhomkar was not given opportunity to perform, Deputy Sarpanch Archita Painginkar had no answers to the queries.
Later, panch Vishwas Kuttikar stated that since their camp enjoyed majority, Bhomkar had no right to continue as sarpanch. “Even if he was allowed to continue, the functioning of the panchayat would have come to a standstill as no resolutions would have gone through,” he opined. Kuttikar also ruled out the possibility of cross-voting on part of any of their five panchas and blamed the presiding officer for the fiasco.
