Mangaluru: A criminal case stands registered against DK Zilla Panchayat President Meenakshi Shanthigodu for allegedly abusing a government doctor and preventing her from discharging her duty. The issue echoed during the general meeting of Zilla Panchayat on Tuesday, July 2 as ZP Member M S Mohammed raked up the matter.
Mohammed said that social media and conventional media have been reporting about the same and the video of Meenakshi Shanthigodu behaving in a rude manner with the doctor is, in fact, a black mark on the Zilla Panchayat.
It may be recalled that a video showing the ZP Chief losing her calm on a paediatrician in Puttur Government Hospital had gone viral recently. It is said that the ZP Chief had come to the hospital to inquire about the health of a Dalit teenager who was reportedly assaulted by the police. However, on reaching the hospital, the ZP Chief was irked that the doctors did not come to the ward when she was meeting the teenager. Close on the heels of this, she confronted the doctor and the video of the same was out.
Responding to it, Meenakshi Shathigodu informed that she had been to Puttur government hospital as a dalit minor girl was tortured by the Puttur Rural police in connection with a theft of jewellery. “When I had been to the hospital, the duty doctor did not come to me and explain the treatment given by the hospital to that dalit girl, despite me waiting for her for 45 minutes. I have only asked the doctor not to repeat her behaviour. If an elected representative can be treated like this, what would be the plight of the general public?”, she questioned.
However, opposition party members did not settle with this reply and said that she and her behaviour has tarnished the image of the ZP. Meanwhile, member Sahul Hameed asked whether law allows ZP president to preside over the meeting when she is facing criminal case. When a sense of pandemonium broke out, Zilla Panchayath Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Selvamani R informed that the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act does not put any such restriction for holding meeting if a case is pending against a ZP president.
Watch the video here
