Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)
Kundapur, Mar 24: Relating to an incident in which panchayat development officer (PDO) of Kergal gram panchayat in the taluk was thrashed by panchayat president and four others, PDOs of the taluk jointly complained to the taluk unit of Karnataka State Government Employees Association on Monday March 23.
Protesting the manhandling of their counterpart at Kergal, Jayanth Patagar, they submitted a memorandum to the president of the taluk unit of the association, seeking justice.
President of the association, Dinakar Shetty, assured the PDOs that no government employee need to bow his head before others, duly assuring that the association would be protecting interests of all 3300 government employees working in the taluk. He assured that he would back the PDOs in their fight against injustice and would take up the issue with the district deputy commissioner and zilla panchayat chief executive officer.
The joint memorandum, which contains demand for the arrest of the culprits, was also submitted to the DYSP. Secretary of the association, Chandrakanth, was also present.
On March 19, Jayanth Patagar, who is a native of Bengaluru, had had gone for GPS collection. The panchayat secretary had gone to taluk panchayat on office work. It is said that president of the panchayat, Revathi Poojary, instructed bill collector, Sudhakar Devadiga, to collect her PAN card. Observing this, Patagar reportedly advised that employees of the panchayat should not be entrusted with personal work.
Angered at this advice, Revathi Poojary, accompanied by Ravichandra, Rajagopal, Ramesh, Santosh, and Shekhar Poojary, caught hold of Patagar who was on duty, by his neck, pushed him around, beat him up, and threatened to file rape case against him, get him suspended, besides posing life threat. In addition, the attackers also filed a complaint in Byndoor police station, it is reported. This happened at around 11.30 am.
Patagar immediately got treated at the Byndoor hospital at 12.15 pm, and after treatment, filed police complaint. He then got admitted into the government hospital at Kundapur where he was treated till March 21.
In response to the complaint, one of the persons mentioned in the complaint, Ravichandra, has been arrested. No others have been taken into custody. In protest against the assault on their colleague, PDOs of the taluk met at the taluk panchayat auditorium, held discussions, and submitted a joint memorandum to the taluk unit of their association.
Jayanth Patagar says that the assault on him had been pre-planned, and that he could escape from the clutches of the attackers through a small door of the attached library. He feels that the concerned would have cooked up some other story if he had not succeeded in immediately escaping from the office.
Dinakar Shetty said that physical assault on government employees on duty is a non-bailable offence. He said that the employees association will provide voice to the government officials working at rural places, about whom the people need to change their outlook. He said that fight will be taken up on behalf of the PDOs and justice would be done to them.