KOLHAPUR: The gram panchayat of Shingnapur village, on the outskirts of Kolhapur city, drew a lot of flak for passing a resolution concerning minority community members. The gram panchayat has since revoked the resolution, and has claimed that “a typing error” caused the confusion.
The resolution was to disallow the registration of minority community residents in the electoral rolls.The resolution also said the gram panchayat would raise objections if any minority community member did manage to get registered as a voter. At a gram sabha held on September 5, another resolution was passed to not allow a minority community board to acquire land in the village.
The resolutions started making rounds on social media on Sunday and drew sharp criticism from political functionaries and minority community organisations. Kolhapur district collector Amol Yedge intervened and ordered an inquiry. The preliminary inquiry states the actual resolution passed during gram sabha and the copy circulated on social media are not the same, and there was “a typing error”.
“A while ago, we encountered some Bangladeshi women living in our village. They had Aadhaar cards, though we don’t know how they got them. We discussed the issue at length and decided not to let the Bangladeshi residents register as voters. That is why we passed the resolution. In the resolution, there was an error, as the word Bangladeshi was not typed in. That caused confusion. We have, however, withdrawn the resolution,” said Rasika Patil, the sarpanch of Shingnapur.
Collector Yedge said he has ordered a further inquiry into the matter. The gram panchayat has been told that it has no authority to register or deregister voters in the electoral rolls.