PANAJI
Days after tendering an apology over a letter issued by the panchayat to remove the life-sized statue of Chatrapati #Shivaji Maharaj statue installed at Calangute, Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira backed his action and stated that his apology was only to avoid a law-and-order situation.
Speaking on the ‘Head-on’ programme on Prudent TV on Monday, Sequeira said that he cannot withdraw the order and said that the panchayat has taken a resolution to send it to the legal fraternity for advice based on which action will be taken.
When asked, if he was against the statue, Sequeira said there is no enmity between him and the great Maratha leader.
“I apologised because there was risk to life of those inside the panchayat office -- there were staff, public and police too. I was not worried about my life,” he said.
Stating that the earlier statue was 10 metres from the other side of the road, Sequeira wondered how it just vanished. “The present statue was raised overnight, within six hours on June 3. Why was it installed in the middle of the road in such a haste, and in the night, he asked.
Knowing that his order would create an uproar, Sequeira maintained that as per the Gram Panchayat Raj Act nobody can put up anything in the middle of the road, it is contempt of the Supreme Court and also the Panchayat.
“I have gone purely according to the Panchayat Raj Act. The statue was installed on June 3, but I had to wait for the meeting which was held on June 8, and we took decision to send the matter to our legal advisors. The draft was ready on June 17 but we sent notices on June 19,” he said.
Refuting claims that he acted like a dictator, Sequeira said he has signatures of the entire panchayat committee, and all documents and files.
“I attached the resolution and sent it to everyone... the Minutes Book is signed. First we debated, then took the resolution. Those who claim that they heard only about filing of FIR are wrong”, he stated.
Speaking further he said, “I am firm on my stand that without taking prior permission, no one should install anything in the middle of the road. I have no objection for the statue, but the position where it is. I had suggested that we would install the statue in its earlier place, but the Shiv Premis installed it on the place where the road was dug for the high mast”.
He however stated that Sudesh Mayekar had applied for NOC, but the Panchayat did not reply to it, so he thought it was approved and installed the statue. “This cannot be done. Permission had to be sought from BDO and Directorate of Panchayat or any other court, before installing the statue, if the Panchayat was not responding to the letter”, he said.
“There was apprehension of a law and order situation or communal disturbance. I was apprehending that, but no one took action. Even the Collector wrote to the SP asking to go and check, but the SP didn’t do it. It is administration failure to make the situation reach to this tipping point, he said.
