Karwar: Centenary Celebrations of Lt. Sakharam D. Gaonkar Begins
September 04, 2024
By Manjunath K. Shresthi
Lt. Sh. Sakharam Dattatray Gaonkar (September 02, 1925- May 21 st 1996) he was popularly known as S. D. Gaonkar. The family a native of Hankon village (on the current SH 34) on the Belagavi –Karwar road.
Lt. S. D. Gaonkar was an advocate by profession and joined the Karwar Bar in 1952. In the same year, he was appointed as District Government Pleader for North Canara. He remained a Pleader, till he became a judge in 1961.
Post the re-organisation of the states on linguistic basis in 1956; he was elected as the first Karwar MLA in 1957 for a five year term, after the newly formed state of Karnataka came into being. In 1961, while he was nearing his completion of the first term as MLA, he was appointed as the Civil Judge in Raigad district, Maharashtra. He had to give up his MLA post.
He later decided to come back to politics. In 1962, he was again elected as an MLC from the North Canara local bodies constituency for a period of six years. During his first year term as MLC from 1962-68, for a period of two years he became the Dy. Speaker of the Council, from 1966-68. During his second term from 1972, he became Speaker, and later became the chairman of the upper house.
Before 1969 he was part of the old Congress. But after the Congress party split in 1969, he became a part of the new Congress along with Morarji Desai, S. Nijalingappa and others. In 1980, late S.D.
Gaonkar rejoined the Indian National Congress (INC). In 1976, he was the common opposition candidate to the Rajya Sabha and lost the seat by a small fraction.
Lt. S.D. Gaonkar, distinguished himself through his work as an activist and also supported the Socialist cause. He supported many organisations which worked for the welfare of the people of north Canara district (now known as Uttara Kannada (U.K) district).
*A series of events will be conducted as part of the centenary celebrations for a year beginning from September 02, 2024 to September 02, 2025. The inaugural function of the centenary celebrations of Lt. Sh. Sakharam Dattatray Gaonkar began on September 02, and it was attended by members of the legal fraternity, friends and well-wishers from Karwar and surrounding places. The guest of honour was Swami Tadyuktananda Maharaj, Shri Ramakrishna Vidyarthi Mandiram, Sri Ramakrishna Math Mission, Basavanagudi, Bengaluru.
Venue: Suvarna Shakti, 705 E, M.G. Road (Hotel Saavn), Karwar, Uttara Kannada (U.K) District,Karnataka.
