Opposition Congress members in the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat boycotted the afternoon session of the monthly meeting of the council on Friday when president of the panchayat K.T. Shailaja Bhat did not permit (an official) to read out a list of 30 anganwadi centres sanctioned to the district by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard).
It was the last monthly meeting presided over by the outgoing president Ms. Bhat whose term ends on October 7.
An issue pertaining to the panchayat allegedly manipulating the list of anganwadi centres sanctioned by Nabard rocked the House in the forenoon session. Raising the issue, Mamatha D.S. Gatti, Congress member from Thumbe, alleged that the panchayat had shifted an anganwadi centre sanctioned to Sajeepa Munnur under Thumbe constituency to Kotekani under Kurnad constituency (represented by a BJP member) violating the guidelines of NABARD.
Chairman of the standing committee for social justice Janardhana Gowda said that it was done after consulting the child development project officers. The Congress members said that there was no provision to change the list under any circumstance. They demanded that Deputy Director of the Department of Women and Child Welfare read out the list of anganwadi centres sanctioned by Nabard. The issue sparked a heated debate forcing Ms. Bhat to adjourn the House for lunch. After the House met in the afternoon, Ms. Bhat told Ms. Gatti that an anganwadi centre would be sanctioned to her constituency.
Ms. Gatti, a former president of the panchayat, who shot back, said that there was no question of the panchayat sanctioning an anganwadi centre as Nabard had already sanctioned it. But the panchayat had only manipulated the list. Then the president instructed the official to give a copy of the list to Ms. Gatti. But Ms. Gatti insisted that the official read out the list. When the president denied permission the Congress members told the president that she was curtailing their rights. When the president did not permit for reading out the list the Congress members boycotted the session.
Congress members, later speaking to presspersons, alleged that the panchayat had manipulated the list by making some more changes in the Nabard list.
