Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (SP)
Bantwal, Dec 14: After a dispute over shortage of seats for members gave rise to heartburn at the taluk panchayat (TP) general session held here on Tuesday December 13, four zilla panchayat (ZP) members boycotted the session and walked out. With this, the persisting tussle relating to one-upmanship over their respective positions, which has been going on sinc last some time beween ZP and TP members got a fresh lease of life.
The session was presided over taluk panchayat president, Shylaja Shetty. On Tuesday, the taluk panchayat had affected changes in the seating arrangement that had been prevalent since the last several years. The seats meant for zilla panchayat members, which used to be at the centre, were pushed to the right hand corner. By the time BJP ZP member, Chennappa Kotian, arrived at the session, all the seats meant for ZP members had been occupied. He waited for some time, expecting that arrangements would be made to accommodate him.
As nothing happened, he expressed anger over the arrangement, and walked out. Congress-supported zilla panchayat members, Prakash Shetty, Mamata Gatti, and M S Mohammed also followed him, expressing disgust at the way the invited members were being insulted by the taluk panchayat.
Some BJP-supported zilla panchayat members continued to participate in the proceedings, unfazed by the above developments. This surprised many, as they had expected ZP members to lend support to their colleagues.
It may be recalled that in the previous two taluk panchayat sessions, there had been tussles over supremacy between ZP and TP members. While some TP members had questioned the presiding officer over being sidelined by ZP members, who they said, tried to occupy centrestage by consuming lot of time, speaking at the sessions. The ZP members had retaliated by questioning as to whether they were being invited to the sessions as mute spectators. There had also been occasions in which the TP members had insisted that the topics raised by ZP members should be resolved at the ZP sessions, and TP should not pass any resolutions on these subjects.
The session, which later took up the issue of notices having been served by the revenue department for the eviction of 15 houses standing in government land in Ira village, discussed the issue threadbare. All the members came to the rescue of the occupants of these houses, and objected to the sudden action of the revenue department. As these poor people having been living in the land since the last 35 years, the session decided to write to the deputy commissioner of the district, urging him to desist from taking stern action against these people.
TP member, Anand Shambhoor, who raised the topic of the death of youngsters in River Netravati since some time, alleged that 11 students had so far lost their lives during the last couple of years because of unscheduled release of water from the hydel power dam belonging to A M R Project at Shambhoor. He demanded payment of adequate compensation to the families of the victims. Member, Hida Suresh, wanted more measures to safeguard lives of the people, while chairman of standing committee, Madhava Mave, suggested to the company to release water only during nights.
The members expressed anger at the absence of key government officials at the TP meets, and discussed the desirability of writing to the higher authorities about the callous attitude of these officials. The members also criticized the tahsildar of the taluk relating persisting problems in the revenue department.
TP vice president Dinesh Amtoor, standing committee chairman, Madhava Mave, ZP members, Santosh Kumar, Jayashree, Nalini Shetty and several TP members took part in the discussions.