What came as a surprise to the Panchayat members is that the Salcete BDO on September 25, wrote a letter to the deputy Collector, Margao to provide police protection for the Sunday gram sabha, while at the same time dashed off the memorandum to the Panchayat secretary for abeyance.
In the memorandum, BDO Mardolkar, citing a report submitted by his observer, maintained that the business in the agenda of the June 1 gram sabha meeting was not complete and that there was no communication from the Panchayat office regarding further status in the matter of continuation of the gram sabha.
Sarpanch Constancio Fernandes said the BDO’s decision to hold the Sunday gram sabha in abeyance has come as a surprise to the Panchayat members. “The BDO had written a letter asking the Panchayat body to hold the gram sabha on August 17 last, but we had replied back saying that the Panchayat would have the meeting on September 28. The Panchayat had asked the BDO to seek police protection and he obliged by writing a letter to the deputy collector. Now, suddenly the BDO want the Panchayat secretary to hold the meeting in abeyance citing the Observer’s report,” Constancio said, while demanding to know why the BDO did not correspond with the Panchayat body since June if his observer had reported that the last gram sabha was incomplete.
