Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Mar 18: The special meeting of the zilla panchayat convened on Thursday March 17 to form standing committees saw several dramatic developments. The Congress members vehemently protested against the denial of seat to one of its women members to the committees, and inclusion of a female member of BJP in two committees. As both the Congress and the BJP stood their ground, and refused to budge, the meeting, which was expected to end in about an hour or two, was stretched to full day.

The meeting was presided over by zilla panchayat president, K T Shylaja Bhat. The election process was supervised by chief executive officer, P Shivashankar. As against the first general session of the zilla panchayat, which was held in an environment of harmony and discipline, this meeting witnessed stubbornness and chaos all along.

The zilla panchayat has strength of 35 members, and seven members each were to be chosen for five standing committees. It was agreed that five from the BJP and two from the Congress would be accommodated in all these committees. It is possible to distribute all the 35 members among these five committees. At the general session, the ZP president was given the power to choose the committees. Senior members from both the parties had decided to share the seats through mutual agreement.

For the first four committees, general committee, finance, accounting and planning committee, social justice committee, education and health committee, as well as agricultural and industry committee, five BJP members each and two from the Congress were chosen. It was pointed out that Asha Timmappa Gowda of the BJP was given memberships of two committees, while the name Ambika Shetty of the Congress was left out.

When the CEO was about to conclude the election process, M S Mohammed of the Congress objected, demanding to include all the Congress members in these committees. He said that if this is not possible, all the Congress members will resign from the committee memberships, promising that the Congress party will not play politics on this issue, and that cooperation to the administration will be extended to the fullest. Mamata D S Gatti supported his demand.

BJP member, Santosh Kumar Rai, said that the committee memberships were distributed in consultation with senior party leaders, and that it would be difficult to reshuffle the same now. After protracted consultations and discussions, the meeting was postponed. After lunch, discussions were held by the BJP members in the room of the president for about an hour. The meeting met again at 3.20 pm, but no solution was in sight. As the both parties stuck to their stands, the president announced that the meeting is being deferred, pending election to standing committee on agriculture and industry.