Karnataka - Bangalore   

CEO’s absence leads to chaos in ZP meet

Bangalore: The general body meeting of Bangalore Rural Zilla Panchayat on Saturday ended in pandemonium with members cutting across party affiliations protesting against the “failure” of Chief Executive Officer K.S. Satyamurthy to turn up.

The meeting, which started an hour behind schedule for lack of quorum, saw most of the remaining time spent in discussions on whether the meeting could be held in the absence of Mr. Satyamurthy.

The members said that it was “utterly irresponsible” on his part to have given only “oral instructions” to Deputy Secretary M. Umananda Rai to conduct the meeting in his place without giving official charge in writing.

While opinion was unanimous on the CEO’s dereliction of duty, there were differences of opinion on whether the meeting could be held in his absence. This discussion, in fact, took away most part of the meeting time, and even cursory discussions on development works had to wait till 1.30 p.m.

A section of the members led by members Krishnappa and V. Narayanaswamy argued that no one else had the power to endorse the resolutions unless officially authorised. When panchayat president C. Muniyappa said that Mr. Satyamurthy was attending a workshop of all CEOs in Mysore, the members asked how he could do so without making alternative arrangements.

Some members, including H.P. Cheluvaraju and B. Munegowda, said that to postpone the meeting on account of CEO’s absence amounted to giving him “undue privilege” since the panchayat president held greater powers.

This discussion ended with a section of members led by Mr. Krishnappa and Mr. Narayanaswamy staging a walkout. The members returned about half-an-hour later after being persuaded by Mr. Muniyappa that he would take the responsibility for implementing all the resolutions.

But all this had left barely an hour for any discussion on development works since the president was scheduled to preside over the valedictory function of a national volleyball tournament at Devanahalli in the evening.

The meeting then passed a quick resolution asking the government to split the road repair allocation made to each zilla panchyat member into at least three tender packages rather than one for a taluk as is now conceived. A meeting is scheduled again on Wednesday to discuss the pending matters.

Surprisingly, though the “irresponsible and autocratic behaviour” of the CEO was what took most time of the discussion at the zilla panchayat, it failed to pass a resolution on taking action against him. This was despite appeals by some members, including Mr. Narayanaswamy.

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