Team Herald
PONDA: Hundreds of farmers at Marcaim gheraoed the committee members of ‘Kul Sanghatan-Bar Amre Khajan Tenant Association’ for allegedly failing to maintain Khajan bandhara and submit proper account of sluice gate income.
Around 200 farmers who had gathered to protest, demanded that the three- member committee including the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer should submit a detailed report of the accounts. However, farmers became furious after the members failed to submit the account details, leading to heated discussions. Ponda police team rushed to the site to maintain law and order.
The farmers alleged that the Committee failed to submit proper accounts of income and expenditure for the past five years and even alleged a scam of Rs 55 lakh. They said that the farmers’ committee has tenure of three years but the present committee has been holding charge for almost six years.
“When it took charge six years ago, there was almost a balance of Rs 1 crore in its account. But aren’t any audit reports of income and expenditure for repairs on bandhara,” one of the protesting farmers said.
Meanwhile, the three-member committee rejected allegations of irregularities. They said that they will present the audited account after one week. As they were having problems in withdrawing money from the bank account, they could not undertake repairs in time.
