DHNS 

Mangalore May 1 : Joining hands with a state-wide protest held under the aegis of Karnataka State Taluk Panchayat Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Members Union, the Mangalore Taluk Panchayat observed “a non-working day” on Monday and sent a memorandum to the Minister for Panchayat Raj.

While similar protests were staged in about 175 Taluk Panchayats across the State, the Mangalore TP too had a share by following its counterparts’ decision. In fact, the beginning of the tale behind the protest is not a recent one.

During a convention of TP presidents and vice-presidents held at Hubli on August 22, 2006, a total of 13 resolutions had been passed, in the backdrop of the act of curtailing the powers of TPs, and the resolutions had been submitted to the Chief Minister.

As the government did not respond to the resolutions, the Union organised a protest in Bangalore on March 28, 2007, which also ended in futile.

Hence, the Union decided to protest in a novel way on Monday, by locking out all TPs in the State. “However, we did not resort to locking out the TP office, as it is unjustifiable. Instead, we observed the day as a “non-working day” and now submitting a memorandum to the Tahsildar which will later be sent to the Panchayat Raj Minister,” TP chief Ranganath Shetty told Deccan Herald.

Probationary Tahsildar Prasanna V received the memorandum from the TP office bearers in the absence of the Tahsildar.

Mangalore TP former president Gokuldas Shetty, members Lawrence Rebello, Ibrahim, Mohanraj, Khalid Yusuf, Vinod Bollur, Vajrakshi P, T A Khader, Shivappa Bangera, Dogu Poojary accompanied Mr Ranganath Shetty, while handing over the memorandum.