Residents of Waghawade village of Belagavi taluk staged a demonstration against the alleged injustice done in ignoring its request to establish gram panchayat (GP) headquarters, and the denial of the right to contest in the just-concluded GP elections.
On Saturday, hundreds of villagers rallied to the office of the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and staged a dharna demanding that the DC relocate the headquarters of the GP from Markandeya Nagar Rehabilitation Centre to Waghawade and desist from holding polls for the panchayat.
The protest was organised and led by the former MLA and Maratha Ekikaran Samithi leader Manohar Kinekar, Bhavakanna Narayan Patil and other elders of Waghawade while polling was in progress in the GP.
Mr. Kinekar, who submitted a memorandum to the Additional Deputy Commissioner G.L. Praveen Kumar, pointed out that the government issued a preliminary notification on January 19 this year declaring Waghawade as a GP. Subsequently, without consulting the villagers, the headquarters of the GP was changed to Markandeya Nagar Rehabilitation Centre.
Thereafter, in a writ petition, the High Court bench at Dharwad passed an interim order staying the final notification on declaring Markandeya Nagar Rehabilitation Centre as the GP headquarters. In the meantime, elections were declared to GPs but none of the Waghawade residents filed nominations in protest, while residents of Markandeya Nagar filed their nominations for the polls.
Despite the High Court stay, polling was conducted for the GP. A fresh calendar of events should have been issued instead of continuing the process, Mr. Kinekar said.
However, the Additional DC said the district administration conducted polling as per the court order. The DC was empowered to change the GP headquarters, which he did in view of the infrastructure available in Markandeya Nagar while there was no building in Waghawade.
It was heartening view for a while when both Kannada and Marathi speaking residents of Waghwade joined hands and walked together, shouting slogans and making common cause for justice for their village.
