MARGAO: Upset Curtorim villagers on Sunday forced the government appointed Administrator to adjourn the gram sabha, without transacting any business.
The villagers were upset that the meeting was called a day before the newly elected panchayat body is to take charge.
Interestingly, not a single newly elected panch was present for the meeting called on Sunday, August 21. The elections to the post of sarpanch and deputy sarpanch are scheduled to be held on Monday, August 22.
The villagers questioned the urgency in calling for the meeting as neither the sarpanch nor deputy has been elected to their positions and pertinent questions regarding the village wouldn’t be answered. The gram sabha had to be adjourned without any business being conducted, upon the request of the villagers.
As informed to the mediapersons, the notice of gram sabha was issued by Kushalidas Gaonkar, secretary of Curtorim Village Panchayat and a two-point agenda was fixed for the meeting, to read and confirm the proceedings of the previous gram sabha and to place the correspondence received from the gram sabha members.
However, the villagers present at the meeting questioned the officials for showing haste in conducting the gram sabha in the absence of the panchayat body, which is yet to be constituted.
“We have been informed that the said meeting was called upon the directions of the BDO, stating that no gram sabha has been conducted since the last four months. Shockingly, we have been hearing that there were several panchayats who had not called a gram sabha meeting for several months. Did BDO take any action against those panchayats?” questioned Santano Rodrigues, a Curtorim local.
He urged the Administrator to adjourn the meeting till the new sarpanch and the new body take the charge of the panchayat.
“There is no need for haste and it is the matter of just one day, wherein the sarpanch and deputy sarpanch for the panchayat will be elected on August 22,” Rodrigues stated.
He also requested the official to act as per the Panchayat Raj Act and not to create unnecessary confusions amongst the villagers pertaining to the gram sabha meeting.
The villagers opined that a gram sabha without the presence of panchas is not fair and urged the Administrator to adjourn the meeting to the next date.
