Asha Gowda becomes president of Dakshina Kannada zilla panchayat

MANGALORE: Senior zilla panchayat member Asha Thimappa Gowda is the new president of Dakshina Kannada zilla panchayat and Satish Kumpala her deputy. Representing the BJP, they were elected unopposed to the posts in elections held here on Saturday after Congress, the principal opposition, chose not to field candidates for the sake of forcing a contest.The BJP has 24-members in the 35-member house and Congress makes up for the rest.
The Congress gesture reduced a lot of time that would have otherwise been consumed on account of procedure that the regional commissioner M V Jayanthi from Mysore would have otherwise taken had they decided to make a fist of a worthless cause. After the customary period allowing the candidates to withdraw their candidature, Jayanthi announced the start of the 20-month tenure of Asha and Sathish from June 8 to February 7, 2016.
This is the third and final elections to the posts in the term of the current council. Both the posts were reserved for candidates from general category. The president and vice-president of this panchayati raj body enjoy tenure of 20-months each. Asha is the chairperson of standing committee on education and health in 2005, represents Bellare constituency in Sullia taluk, Satish, a RSS worker is elected from Kotekar constituency in Mangalore taluk.
Both Asha and Satish assured to address the drinking water issues of rural areas in the district. Asha said the need is to make Dakshina Kannada a model district in India by addressing the problems of basic amenities, such as scarcity of drinking water and cleanliness by taking programmes to villages. Satish said his emphasis will be on tax collection and water distribution at the Gram Panchayat level in an equitable manner.