Khola sarpanch ousted

CANACONA, SEPT 9
Khola Sarpanch Biva Velip was on Tuesday voted out of office after a no-confidence motion was passed by 5-0 votes in the nine-member panchayat.
According to sources in Canacona BDO office, a no-confidence motion was filed by five panchas last week.
The no-confidence motion was taken up on Tuesday and four panchas including sarpanch Biva Velip did not attend the meeting called by Canacona Block Development Officer.
Interestingly, all the five panchas who voted in favour of no-confidence motion are from the ruling group, including Deputy Sarpanch Ujwala Velip, Archana Velip, Shanta Velip, Prabhakar Velip and Prabhakar Vaiz who revolted against the sarpanch.
Biva Velip did not attend the meeting, increasing the group of opposition panchas consisting Babu Pandhari Prabhudessai, Sergeo Fernandes and Ashmita Pagi who too preferred to remain absent for the voting.
This is the first time Khola sarpanch was voted out in the present panchayat after the last panchayat elections. The previous no-confidence motion moved against Biva Velip with active participation of the other three panchas fizzled out at the last moment, after other two signatories from the ruling group backed out.
It was learnt that Archana Velip is tipped to be the next sarpanch of Khola panchayat, while the post of deputy sarpanch will remain untouched as per the agreement reached with the ruling panchas.