Mangaluru: Jyoti, president of the Shiriyar Gram Panchayat, staged a dharna in front of the Udupi Zilla Panchayat here on Tuesday alleging that there was a conspiracy to dissolve the gram panchayat and remove her from her post.

She told presspersons here that she took charge as president of the gram panchayat in 2015. But some gram panchayat members could not digest the fact that a Dalit woman had become the president. Hence, they were not attending the monthly gram panchayat meetings.

This had happened as many as eight times. With the result, the gram panchayat meetings had to be adjourned for lack of quorum.

This had affected development works in the gram panchayat. Since the previous Panchayat Development Officer (PDO) had joined hands with these members, he was suspended.

Already, the gram panchayat had lodged a complaint with the taluk panchayat, zilla panchayat and the State Election Commission (SEC) about the absence of the members in the gram panchayat meetings. The taluk panchayat and zilla panchayat should press for legal action by SEC against the absentee gram panchayat members, she said.

Instead, the Udupi Taluk Panchayat had recommended to the Udupi Zilla Panchayat that the gram panchayat be dissolved, though the matter was not on the agenda of the Taluk Panchayat meeting. This was an illegal move.

The agenda of the zilla panchayat general body meeting on November 29 (Tuesday) had included the topic of dissolution of the Shiriyar Gram Panchayat, which was illegal. “The zilla panchayat should not dissolve the gram panchayat but instead should press for action by SEC against absentee members of the gram panchayat,” she said.

The Gram Panchayat has a strength of 13, of whom five are Congress supported members, six are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported members, while two are independents, Ms. Jyoti said.

Meanwhile, Priyanka Mary Francis, CEO of Zilla Panchayat, said that the Udupi Taluk Panchayat had proposed dissolution of the gram panchayat as meetings were not taking place there.

The zilla panchayat had, in its general body meeting on Tuesday, agreed with the taluk panchayat’s dissolution proposal but decided to issue a notice to the gram panchayat. “If the gram [anchayat decides to hold meetings and function in a normal manner, the dissolution could be avoided,” she said.