By Marcellus D’Souza
Apr 20: Panchayat Minister of Goa, Mauvin Godinho today announced that the tentative date for elections to the 189 Panchayat’s will be June 4.
Godinho who had held the portfolio in the previous government of Pramod Sawant as well as in the 0.2 government said, “The delimitation process is in the final stage that the reservation process would be undertaken thereafter”. Once the delimitation process is over and done, the Directorate of Panchayats (DoP) is likely to give the green light to the SEC to go ahead with the poll process. Once the delimitation proposals are approved, a notification will be issued to mark the new boundaries of the wards in the village panchayats.
“We have received many objections and suggestions from various organisations and are studying them”. The State Election Commission (SEC) and the Election Commission of India (EC) are involved in the process”. “These objections received from various people involve how a ward has been demarcated. There are allegations that a family has been divided in the demarcation process”, the minister added.
The SEC is said to have received 913 objections and suggestions from North Goa and South Goa as of date.
On the reservation process which will begin after the demarcation has been finalised, the STC will decide if the ward should be reserved fro Women or Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Communities. “When I was Minister for Panchayat, I had accommodated many requests for inclusion and exclusion. This time too I will do my best to accommodate as many request and iron out as many objections”, Godinho asserted.
“The government has decided not to have panchayat elections on party lines. There is no place for politics in the Panchayat elections. Let the people select their people whom they want at the helm of affairs at the village level. Do not infuse the Panchyat elections with politics”, Godinho appealed.
It may be recalled Zagrutt Xaxticar and Goencho Swabhiman Party (GSP) are holding awareness meetings across Goa to highlight the importance of the Panchayati Raj Act and the role of the panchayat’s.
Many Goans are not happy with the delimitation process. Joseph Vaz, general secretary of the Goa Panchayat Democratic Forum said, “I am not happy with delimitation as it should have been done with proper geographical ward boundaries and adequate numbers of voters in each ward. There should be no duplication of votes and repeat of house numbers in more than one ward. The government should have given enough time for the delimitation process and also should have involved their counterparts at village level for clear and fair delimitation. I believe that the government is in a hurry and has no care for grassroots administration, which speaks volume about its desire to give more power to panchayats. The government must take a bigger initiative to make panchayats people friendly.”
“The utter disregard and contempt for our Panchayat bodies is apparent from the callous, thoughtless, and directionless manner in which the recent ward delimitation exercise has been carried out. But then what can one expect from an administration that has consistently demonstrated its lack of respect for the concept of local self government by keeping Goa as the only State that has failed to implement the 73rd and 74th amendment?”, said Swapnesh Sherlekar, president of Goencho Swabhiman Party (GSP).
Goa is the only state in India where the state government has not empowered its 189 village panchayats and gram sabhas to take decisions in 29 subjects, including health, education, family welfare, and land reforms among others.
South Goa consists of 7 talukas while North Goa comprises of Bardez which has 44 villages; Bicholim which has 26 villages; Pernem, 28 villages and Ponda, 32 villages. There are 120 Village Panchayats, 6 Municipal Councils, 1 City of Corporation and 1 “North Goa Zilla Panchayat” in North Goa.