TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: In an interesting development, the 12-member ruling group in the Margao Municipal council split on Friday, with five members of the group joining hands with the eight-member Arthur-led opposition to table a no trust motion against Vice Chairperson Berta Cardozo.
The split in the ruling group comes less than a month after the 12 councillors elected Dayanand Deulkar as the municipal chairperson after voting out Arthur D’silva from office.
The no confidence motion against the vice chairperson has been signed by the eight-member opposition group comprising of Arthur D’Silva, Raju Naik, Dadi Mayenkar, Gonzaco Gonsalves, Joseph Silva, Doris Texeira, Carmeena Rodrigues and Bindiya Naik and the five member ruling group consists of husband-wife duo of Sadanand and Babita Naik, Pratima Coutinho, Sangeeta Audi and Avinash Shirodkar.
The notice of no trust motion was filed in the office of the Director of Municipal Administration Elvis Gomes on Friday evening. Incidentally, the motion against the vice chairperson comes in the absence of Municipal Chairperson Dayanand Deulkar, who is presently out of station.
When contacted, Berta, who is officiating as the municipal chairperson in place of Dayanand Deulkar, said that she has no comments to offer on the development.
Asked whether she would face the motion or quit the post of vice chairperson, Berta said “our ruling members will meet and discuss the development before taking a decision.”
Though a signatory to the motion from the ruling group maintained that the development will not affect the stability as far as the municipal chairperson is concerned, sources said the fact that five ruling members have joined hands with the opposition to table the motion has exposed hollow the unity within the ruling group.
