MARGAO
All eyes are focused on the High Court as the episode on the disqualification of the four Rumdamol village panchayat members will come up for hearing on Wednesday.
After the four Panchayat members, outgoing Sarpanch Mubina Faniband, Samuilla Faniband, Mustafa Dodamani, and Zubeda Agasar, were disqualified by Salcete BDO-II Adarsh Desai, the South Goa District Court had later stayed the order, paving the way for the four to participate in the election for the post of Rumdamol Sarpanch on Monday. It’s another matter that the election could not take place after the Presiding Officer and the reserve officer, both reported sick.
The matter has reached the High Court after the complainant Mukesh Naik has challenged the stay order of the South Goa district Court on Monday.
The proceedings in the High Court assume significance as any decision will have a bearing on the election of the Sarpanch. Sources pointed out that if the High Court upholds the district Court order staying the BDO’s disqualification order, it would come as a moral boost for the four Panchayat members, who cannot get their one of them elected as the Sarpanch despite enjoying a majority in the nine-member body.
Any order setting aside the District Court’s order, sources said, would clear decks for the four-member opposition group in the 9-member Rumdamol panchaayt body to have their men elected as the new Sarpanch.
Meanwhile, a day after the election for the post of Sarpanch was scuttled on Monday after the Presiding officers reported sick, questions are raised in Panchayat circles and beyond why the BDO did not straightaway head to the Rumdamol Panchayat to conduct the election by himself in the absence of the Presiding Officer and the reserve officer both complained of illness.
For, when Salcete Block Development Officer-II Adarsh Desai realised that the Presiding officer drafted to conduct election of Rumdamol Sarpanch complained of chest pain, he headed to the South Goa district hospital to inquire the condition of his staff.
Take note, BDO Adarsh Desai did make it to the Rumdamol village Panchaayt after the scheduled time for filing of nomination paper for the vacant post of Sarpanch. While the time frame for the filing of nomination papers was scheduled between 10.30 to 10 am, the BDO reached the Rumdamol panchayat only at around 11.15-11.30 am around 15-20 minutes after the expiry of the time for filing of nomination papers.
