Four zilla panchayat members belonging to the Congress and the BJP have demanded convening a special meeting to table a no-confidence motion against the ZP president and vice president. The charge against them is non-implementation of developmental schemes in the district.

In a letter written to the Zilla Panchayat President Anil Bhusare and Chief Executive Officer Jitendra Naik, the members have urged for a special meeting as per Section 180 (2) (a) of the Panchayat Raj Act, 1993. They have further requested that the meeting be convened within 15 days of receipt of their letter.

Addressing a press conference here after submitting the letter, the Congress and BJP members explained that the meeting was being requested to table the no-confidence motion for ‘not working towards the development of the district and failing to preserve the interests of the people.’

D K Sidrama of the Congress alleged that while some vested interests wanted to take the reins of the district administration by installing puppets, others wanted the incumbents to continue.

The member also informed reporters that 13 members of his party and four from the BJP had joined hands to set up Bidar District Development Forum, with a view to work in harmony for the remaining 43 months.
Padmakar Patil will be the forum’s convenor, he added.

Transfer of power

Addressing reporters Mr Patil said, as per the agreement between the JD (S) and the BJP, the tenure was to be divided into 10 months for each party.

However, by continuing in the president’s post even after the expiry of his term, Anil Bhusare has gone against this.  Both the president and his deputy did not pay heed to the requests of the BJP president and did not resign. This forced the party to join hands with the Congress and table the no-confidence motion, Patil asserted.

BJP member Meenakshi Sangrame accused the superiors of both the parties for entering into an agreement on without taking the members into confidence. The highcommand had even decided the sharing of powers and selection of chairmen of standing committees. This has resulted in injustice, she charged.

“As per party decision, myself and Bheemanna Kolle were to be chairmen of standing committees. Yet, we were defeated violating party orders. We managed to succeed in tabling a no-confidence motion after six months. But had to retreat due to party pressure. The resignation letters were written during this period. Yet, there is no progress on that front,” the member added.

Congress member Amrut Chimkod however clarified that there was no dissent in the party and no one would speak against the Congress.

BJP members Meenakshi Sangrame, Ganapatrao Kadam, Bheemanna Kolle and Padmakar Patil and D K Sidrama, Shivaraj Hasanakar, Sangeeta Patil, Shakuntala Bai, Neelakant Rathod, Kalidas Wadekar, Sunil Singh Hazari, Rajashekhar Patil, Shivamma Basavaraj, Abdul Sattar Kalyani, Nandini Chandrashekhar and Amrutrao Chimkod of the Congress have signed the letter.