On 31st January seven members of the Cortalim Village Panchayat addressed a letter to the Block Development Officer of Mormugao expressing their no-confidence in the Sarpanch Mrs. Senia Pereira and Deputy Sarpanch Mr. Santano da Gama.
Swiftly the very same day i.e. on 31st January itself the Mormugao Block Development Officer Prasiddh Naik issued an order convening a Special meeting of the Cortalim Panchayat on 4th February at 10.30 to discuss the said no-confidence motion.
The Secretary of the Cortalim Village Panchayat Krishna Gaude again on the very same day intimated the 11 members of the Panchayat that the said meeting will be held on 4th February to discuss the said no-confidence motion.
We have never ever witnessed the authorities function in such a tearing velocity with everything being decided in a day. Surprising that all this has been done at such a lightning speed despite the Model Code of Conduct being in force and all the government officials being preoccupied with the ensuing Assembly elections.
Needless to state there is a clear political angle to all this on the eve of Assembly elections and the officials have undoubtedly worked at the behest of Mauvin Godinho who hails from the Mormugao Taluka and is the Panchayat Minister under whose diktats the Block Development Officers function.
These so distasteful sequence of events at the Cortalim Panchayat are alarming and does not at all augur well for democracy, when we have seen such no-confidence motions dragging and being conveniently kept in cold storage for weeks together.
