Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, May 28: The state high court has stayed operation of an order through which membership of Uday Patali, former president and current member of Punacha gram panchayat in the taluk, was nullified.

Abdul Aziz and M R Manjeer, residents of Parladka in Puttur Darbe, had filed a complaint with Karnataka Lokayukta on May 8 2014, claiming that the then panchayat development officer, Premalata, and then president, Uday Patali, had transgressed orders passed by the state high court regarding vacating of an auto rickshaw stand and its name board in Punacha village. They had sought departmental inquiry against the panchayat development officer and action as per Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act against the president.

Acting on the basis of this complaint, principal secretary in panchayat raj department, Dr N Nagambika Devi, had disqualified Uday Patali from panchayat membership, considering that he had committed dereliction of duty. The high court has stayed this order, upon filing of an application by Patali against it.