-- Samir Umarye BICHOLIM MARCH 10: The Mayem panchayat was considered unstable during the last tenure but this time over
the focus has shifted from the post of sarpanch to the secretary with as many as seven different secretaries handling the panchayat for a brief period of nine months. The 11 member Mayem panchayat was in foucus during the last tenure for frequent change in the post of the sarpanch. In five years the post of sarpanch changed five times even as every ruling party was under a constant pressure of bickering. This time over the Mayem panchayat is yet again in focus for a different reason - frequent Chang in the post of secretary. In last nine months this panchayat saw as many as seven panchayat secretaries. The seven member ruling group has stated the political intervention as the basic cause behind this frequent change. Inspite of so many changes this panchayat since last a month is run by a secretary who has additional duty of another panchayat. This game of change started just after two months of the elections when the secretary, Vasudev Raut was given the charge of the panchayat in place of Parab. Since then no secretary has completed a tenure of two months in the panchayat. The last secretary to be changed was Phadte who became bit controversial during his tenure. "He always harassed the people and took weeks for a simple days work" former panch, Kashinath Mayekar accused adding "he also had several corruption cases pending against him." The department placed Phadte in the BDO's office and gave the Sal panchayat secretary, S Y Gawas the additional duty of the Mayem panchayat. In all this game the worst affected were the people. "The new secretary comes only three days a week as he has an additional duty of the Sal panchayat" ruling panch, Tulshidas Chodankar told Herald adding "we demand full time secretary to our panchayat." The ruling group has also accused the opposition for this frequent change and the political intervention in the panchayat. They have also urged the panchayat director and the panchayat minister to look into the matter and solve the problem