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Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
No-confidence motion against Sarpanch passed in Kolhapur village
Kasba Beed, a village in Kolhapur, passed a no-confidence motion against its sarpanch belonging to the Shiv Sena. Uttam Varute, the sarpanch elected in 2023, was removed from his post in the motion passed on Thursday. Of the eleven gram panchayat members, 10 were from Congress while one was elected on a Shiv Sena ticket. They brought about the no-confidence motion due to dissatisfaction with the work of the sarpanch, with the lone Shiv Sena member also recently joining the Congress. The Maharashtra Village Panchayats (Amendment) Act, 2022 allows for the gram panchayat to remove the sarpanch by passing a motion of no-confidence, which has to be initiated by three-fourth of the members. The motion then has to be ratified by the Gram Sabha. This motion can only be bought in after the sarpanch completes two years in office. The act reads, 'After the motion of no-confidence against the directly elected Sarpanch is carried by a majority of not less than three-fourth of the total number of the members, who are for the time being entitled to sit and vote at any meeting of the panchayat, then the same shall be ratified by the Gram Sabha, in Varute, however, said that he was removed without any reason and he made all decisions with consensus. 'Without any reason they have removed me as the Sarpanch. I have not indulged in any corruption or anything like that. I have taken all members along and given work to everybody. They have never even opposed me before this. They are making the allegations now but they did not oppose me before this. I am not opposed to this law that allows for the Sarpanch to be removed but this has been used unjustly before me. I will contest the election again,' he said. Mukund Patil, a resident of the village, said, 'When elections were held for the public to vote, there were two symbols — a circle for those in favour of the no-confidence and a triangle to reject it. There are 5,000 people in the village, of whom 3,200 are eligible to vote. A total of 1763 voters turned up. Those who wanted to vote would had to register between 8 and 11 am. Then, voting took place between 11 am and 4 pm. This wasn't EVM but the old-style ballot paper. When the results were declared, it was found that 1022 were in favour of the no-confidence.'
Time of India
4 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
In a rare instance, Kolhapur villagers vote out directly elected sarpanch for ‘poor performance'
Kolhapur: Residents of a village in this western Maharashtra district voted out the sarpanch for his "unsatisfactory performances" and "tendency to take unilateral decisions" on Thursday, two years after they had elected him to the post. Officials on Friday confirmed that exercising the right to recall and remove a directly elected sarpanch by the villagers of Kasba Beed was a rare instance in the state. Kasba Beed gram panchayat members were not satisfied with sarpanch Uttam Varute's way of functioning and passed a resolution to move a no-confidence motion against him. In the 2022 election, Varute had won the post of sarpanch by 98 votes. A member of his panel had also successfully contested the poll. However, 10 members of the opposition panel won at the same time. "The opposition was angry with the fact that the post of the sarpanch went to the other panel. Despite this, I ensured that every member is consulted while making decisions over funds. The no-trust motion was politically triggered. They had offered me to resign respectfully, but I faced the motion as I did not do anything wrong," said Varute. Varute is a Shiv Sena worker, while the opposition panel is led by Patil, who is a Congress supporter. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Lose Weight at Night – a Teaspoon is Enough Beauty Ideas Read More Undo The Maharashtra Village Panchayats (Amendment) Act, 2017, has a provision of a majority (not less than three-fourths of village panchayat members) can bring in such a resolution. The law states that the no-confidence motion can be brought only after the sarpanch completes two years in office. In accordance with the law, the resolution was passed at a special gram sabha meeting where every resident of the village was eligible to vote. The voting was held in the presence of an official deployed by the district collector. The no-confidence motion was passed with 1,041 people voting in favour of unseating the sarpanch, while 713 were against the motion. Satyajit Patil, who was the first directly elected sarpanch of the village, took the lead in moving the no-trust vote against Varute. He said: "Varute would not take into confidence the village panchayat members while utilising govt funds. This was one of the points of contention." . Subsequently, a section of the gram panchayat members wrote to the tehsildar about their intention to unseat the sarpanch. The meeting to pass the no-trust motion was introduced before the official. Subsequently, district collector Amol Yedge notified an election to get the motion to vote in the gram sabha. The election was accordingly held on Thursday. Datta Kakade, president of Sarpanch Parishad Maharashtra, said: "There are only a handful of cases where a directly elected sarpanch was ousted out of office by re-voting. One of the members from the elected members is chosen to become sarpanch for the remaining two-and-a-half years of the tenure. This provision was added to avoid direct election, which requires money and machinery. The process of direct election of sarpanch has more pros than cons. A directly elected sarpanch represents people's will and does not have to be at the mercy of the local legislator."
