Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Jun 30: In what can be termed as a blunder committed by some government officials, election to the posts of presidents and vice-presidents to taluk panchayat were held against set norms, even before the publication of the final notification over reservation criteria.

As a result, the post of the taluk panchayat (TP) president here, which should have gone to a female candidate as per the modified reservation criteria announced in the final notification, has been bagged by a male member, as election was conducted without awaiting the final notification by bureaucrats.

The above aberration took place in this taluk panchayat recently. No one at present knows how this wrong can be set right, and whether anyone will face disciplinary action or discomfiture for this blunder, or whether the election has to be held afresh to set right the anomaly and injustice to women.

As per the notification dated April 16, 2014 issued by the director in the department of panchayati raj and ex-officio joint secretary of the government, S M Zulfikar Ulla, the post of the taluk panchayat president here had been earmarked for backward classes, while the vice-president's post was set aside for woman candidate from general category. As per the directions of the deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district, assistant commissioner from Mangalore, Dr Prashant, oversaw an election held on June 9, in which Yashwant Deraje was elected as the new president of Bantwal taluk panchayat. The post of the vice-president went to Vilasini.

However, the final notification announcing revised eligibility criteria for these posts, issued on June 18, after considering petitions and objections received from the general public subsequent to earlier notification, changed the reservation criteria pertaining to this taluk panchayat. The final notification mentioned that as per the guidelines and directions given by the state high court on February 14, 2011, in writ petition number 5873/2011 and others, the rotation system of reservation for the posts of taluk panchayat presidents and vice-presidents for the third term had been affected and announced the same as per the enclosure to the final notification, as per which, to the chagrin of aspiring women candidates here, the president's post was allocated to women.

Congress party has taken serious view of the confusion created herein, and robbing of the post of the taluk panchayat president from going to a lady candidate. Out of 33 members in the taluk panchayat here, Congress has a strength of 16, and BJP, 17. BJP is therefore in power, and Congress wants to use this lapse as a weapon to attack the ruling party. Speaking to Daijiworld, chairman of standing committee, Sampat Kumar Shetty, insisted that the above issue needs to be discussed threadbare. He also explained about his plan to bring together Congress-supported members to discuss this issue and take a final decision.

Ida Suresh, a woman taluk panchayat member, said that woman taluk panchayat members would be brought together to fight against this injustice, as injustice against women cannot be tolerated.

After the controversy started making headlines in newspapers and websites during the last two days, both the notifications were taken off from the website of the state panchayati raj department. It is clear that the government wants to treat the notification issued for the first time for the information of the general public as final. Mangalore assistant commissioner, Dr Prashant, said that the preliminary notification has now been treated as final, as election was held in this taluk before the publication of the final notification.

Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner, A B Ibrahim, said that the department has already been informed of the fact that election to the posts of the taluk panchayat president and vice-president had been held on June 9, before the issuance of final notification. He said that the department has since issued a notification duly finalizing the first notification, and as such, insisted that there are no confusion now relating to the issue.