Team Goemkarponn
PONDA: Usgao-Ganjem Panchayat Secretary has been suspended with immediate effect following a complaint of outraging of modesty filed against him by a 22-year-old woman from Valpoi.
On Friday, Panchayat Director Siddhi Halarnkar issued an order to that effect.
The Ponda police had booked 55-year-old from Sakhali under sections 78(2), 75(2), 75(3), and 79 of BNS 2023 after the woman had lodged a complaint against him.
In a directive, the Panchayat Director stated, “It is further directed that during the period of his suspension in force, the Village Panchayat Secretary Honaji Anil Morajkar of Village Panchayat Usgao Ganjem, Ponda, Block, shall report to the office of Block Development Office, Ponda, and will not leave the headquarters without obtaining the permission of this authority.”
Nonetheless, where permitted, the Panchayat Secretary will be eligible for subsistence benefits. “Order said.”
A decision to suspend the Panchayat Secretary was previously made, according to Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho.
“The specific secretary is the target of our effort. The government cannot allow such behavior. At the city’s BJP headquarters, he said reporters, “We have already moved the file to suspend him.”
Despite having the slogan “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led administration was criticized by the opposition Congress for failing to protect women.
On January 14, the Usgao-Ganjem panchayat secretary was charged by the Ponda police with violating the modesty of a Valpoi woman, age 22.
The accused went on sick leave the day after the complaint was filed and applied for anticipatory bail, which the court granted him temporary respite for. In January, he applied for anticipatory bail and was given temporary respite.