Margao civic chairperson quits ahead of trust vote

Times of India | 4 days ago | 23-09-2022 | 02:40 am

Margao: A day ahead of the no confidence motion (NCM) moved against him, Margao Municipal Council (MMC) chairperson Ghanashyam Shirodkar on Thursday stepped down from his post. He submitted his resignation to the director of municipal administration.Shirodkar was elected chairperson on September 16, defeating Damodar Shirodkar, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat’s nominee, 15-10. Left red-faced over cross-voting by BJP-affiliated councillors, all the 15 BJP-affiliated councillors were made to sign a no confidence motion against him, hours after the election and it was submitted to the DMA on September 19.After submitting his resignation, Ghanashyam once again hit out at Kamat for what he said was his “political ego” that led him to force the councillors to swear on coconut before Dev Dambab that they hadn’t cross voted.Stating that this was not the right way to guide councillors, most of whom were elected for the first time, Ghanashyam said that Kamat as well as chief minister Pramod Sawant not to meddle in the affairs of civic bodies.He said that if voting on the motion was to be held by secret ballot instead of show of hands, he would have defeated the motion. “However, I didn’t want to put the councillors in a dilemma or pressurise anybody to vote for me. Rather, I thought it would be better for me to resign and go,” Ghanashyam told reporters.Pointing out to inconsistencies in the law governing election of chairperson of municipalities, Ghanashyam said he would move the court seeking laying down of guidelines in the law pertaining to conduct of elections.“As the existing law, the chairperson is elected by secret ballot but a no confidence motion is decided by show of hands. This needs to be removed and guidelines need to be laid down by law” he said.He said that there a need to amendment the law that would prohibit ouster of a chairperson for at least six months from his election.

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Times of India | 1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:51 am

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1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:51 am

Margao/Vasco/Calangute: Three persons were arrested by the police on Sunday—one in Fatorda, one in Zuarinagar and one in Calangute—with ganja.Fatorda police on Sunday arrested a resident of Navelim after he was found with ganja worth nearly a Rs 1 lakh. Police sources said that the accused, Zaker Akbar Shaikh, 35, was nabbed from the parking lot of SGPDA market at Fatorda, on Sunday afternoon. Following a search in the presence of executive magistrate, Salcete, 986g of a narcotic substance, suspected to be ganja, was recovered from him.Calangute police nabbed a drug peddler, Muhammad Jafer Gudumia, from Karnataka with 1.1kg narcotics worth Rs 1.1 lakh near the Dolphin Circle at Calangute on Sunday. Verna police arrested a food delivery person with 63g of ganja worth Rs 6,300. Investigating officer Pravin Simepurushkar said the accused, Shiv Pratap Halwai, 24, is a resident of Vasco and native of Mumbai.

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Times of India | 1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:46 am

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1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:46 am

Calangute: Calangute MLA Michael Lobo on Sunday said that the people have got the wrong impression that he broke an oath to God by leaving Congress and joining BJP. “The oath was that we will not break from the party when we form the government. If the people of Goa did not give us 21 seats, then the oath does not stay. The oath was that if the party gets the numbers and wins and forms government, we will not break. But we only got 11 seats,” he said. Replying to queries, Lobo said it is for the people to decide if they will vote for him again. “We have to work for the people, only then will they vote for us again,” he said. He said the eight MLAs leaving Congress does not mean the party is finished. “Congress still has three MLAs. It does not mean the end of Congress,” Lobo said. However, he said it was a mistake to have left the BJP and joined Congress just before the assembly election. “Personally I think we should not have left BJP. If we made a mistake, then we have to admit it and we have admitted it. We’ve now come back into the party,” he said. He also denied that he rejoined BJP because of threats of raids by the ED and other investigation agencies.

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Times of India | 1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:45 am

Times of India

1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 04:45 am

Margao: Up until about10 days ago, he was singing paeans to the founders of Congress and how its roots lay in the freedom movement. On Sunday, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat paid rich tributes to Pt Deendayal Upadhyay, an RSS thinker and former leader of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of BJP, on his birth anniversary. Hopping from ward to ward represented by councillors affiliated to him, Kamat led his supporters-turned-saffron karyakartas in eulogising the leader who showed the nation the path of antyodaya. For Kamat, the ideological switchover has been seemingly smooth and complete, effortless and instant. “Upadhyay laid the foundation of today’s BJP. If BJP is in office today, its credit goes to leaders like him who did the spadework for the party which was then known as Bharatiya Jana Sangh. It’s the exemplary work done by Upadhyay and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee that has now resulted in BJP coming to office,” Kamat told his supporters who stood shoulder to shoulder with original BJP karyakartas who had fought battles over the last 17 years.Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann ki Baat of Sunday, wherein Modi hailed Upadhyay and credited him with India’s progress and achievements, Kamat said that BJP (then Bharatiya Jana Sangh) during those times worked towards reaching out to all sections of society and uplifting the common man. “It’s the duty of all karyakartas to remember the leader, and therefore the party chalked out this program of holding the shraddhanjali programme in all wards,” Kamat said. Political observers say that BJP’s success in Margao will hinge largely on how well the two BJP factions – one controlled by Kamat and the other belonging to the party cadre – gel with each other. A few days ago, BJP held a meeting with Kamat and the party cadre in Panaji in the presence of the top brass of BJP, including chief minister Pramod Sawant, that served as an icebreaker to thaw the relations between the two. The recent change in equations in the Margao Municipal Council (MMC), following Kamat switching over to BJP, led to the ouster of Ghanashyam Shirodkar, hardly a week after he was elected chairperson. Though Kamat’s nominee Damodar Shirodkar was defeated by Ghanashyam in the chairperson’s elections, it’s unlikely that Kamat will have the final word in deciding the candidature this time as a couple of councillors elected on the BJP-backed panel are also eyeing the top post.

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Times of India | 1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 02:40 am

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1 day ago | 26-09-2022 | 02:40 am

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Ndtv | 1 day ago | 25-09-2022 | 11:19 am

Ndtv

1 day ago | 25-09-2022 | 11:19 am

Eyeing expansion, the Trinamool Congress had actively campaigned for the assembly elections in Goa.New Delhi: The Goa assembly elections were keenly fought with the Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party throwing their hats in the ring but when it came to poll expenditure, it was the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress that loosened its purse strings spending a whopping Rs 47.54 crore.The BJP, which retained power in Goa with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant at the helm, spent over Rs 17.75 crore towards election expenditure in the state.The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP spent nearly Rs 3.5 crore in Goa, where it tried its luck for the second consecutive assembly elections.The details of the election expenditure were submitted by the respective political parties to the Election Commission recently.The Congress, which was hoping to dislodge the BJP from power in Goa, spent approximately Rs 12 crore on the Goa elections.The Nationalist Congress Party gave Rs 25 lakh each to the 11 candidates it had fielded for the elections, besides spending on the campaign from the party's central fund.The Shiv Sena, which fielded 10 candidates in the Goa elections, spent nearly Rs 92 lakh towards poll expenditure. Eyeing expansion, the Trinamool Congress had launched an election blitzkrieg in Goa with poll strategist Prashant Kishor playing a key role in trying to get the party a toehold in the state.The party fielded 23 candidates in the Goa assembly election but none of them won, while its ally Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party put up candidates in 13 seats and managed to win two.The AAP fielded 39 candidates and managed to open its account in the state by winning two seats.The Congress had cried foul at the entry of Trinamool Congress and the AAP in the electoral fray in Goa, accusing them of dividing the anti-BJP vote.The BJP won 20 seats in the 40-member assembly and formed the government with the support of two MGP MLAs and three Independent legislators.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comEarlier this month, eight of the 11 Congress MLAs, including Leader of Opposition Michael Lobo and former chief minister Digambar Kamat, defected to the BJP.(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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