The order of the director of panchayat is in consequence of an enquiry conducted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) that found several lapses in the appointment process of the panchayt clerk.
Director of Panchayats Gurduas Pilarnekar has also stated that the action taken report would be submitted to the Directorate of Vigilance.
“In view of the ACB enquiry findings, is clear that the Departmental selection committee of Aquem Baixo panchayat has done selection of Pooja Mane to the post clerk by adopting fraudulent way, without following proper procedure and keeping room for taking suspicious view,” Pilarnekar said in his order.
Meanwhile, the Navelim Civic and Consumer Forum (NNCF) has appreciated the tough stand taken by the director of panchayat and demanded that an FIR be lodged against Mane.
Residents of Aquem-Baixo backed by NCCF have questioned the delay by the Sarpanch Sharon Quadros in taking action against Mane in view of directions issued by the DOP.
They pointed out that the panchayat secretary has been issued a memorandum by the DoP to submit the name of the person/officials who were on the panel of selection committee.
The vigilance department stated that the during the scrutiny of documents her application should have been rejected by the Selection committee as Mane was not having requisite qualification as per the advertisement published in the local dailies.
A local resident and senior citizen, Donna Blanche da Costa on whose complaint the Vigilance department conducted the inquiry, said that she had approached the Vigilance after no action came forth on her complaints to the panchayat and Block Development Officer.
In a press note, Blanche da Costa said that there were many deserving candidates in the list for the post of a clerk and found the selection committee’s appointment of Mane to be suspicious and filed an RTI application to get details. Blanche alleged that she received threats but persisted with her complaint with vigilance department.
Elaborating on the fraud, the vigilance department pointed out that as per the advertisements published by the panchayat in local dailies, the typing certificate is mandatory for post of clerk but Mane had only submitted the typing certificate when the appointment was issued to her and had not submitted the certificate when she submitted her application.
The vigilance department also conducted background checks on her certificates to the institutes that had issued her certificates based on which it sent its report to the DOP following which the DOP had issued a show-cause notice before issuing the cancellation order.