MAPUSA
Stating that the mandate to govern the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) by panel floated by Mapshekarancho Ekvott has been robbed from the people of Mapusa, the group of opposition councillors said they would, however, support the incoming chairperson for the development of Mapusa.
“We have decided to support and extend our full cooperation to the incoming chairperson keeping in mind the genuine development of Mapusa. However, we will provide a constructive, vocal and robust opposition to malfunctioning, corruption and misadministration in the council,” said a press note signed by all the five councillors of the Mapshekarancho Ekvott (ME) -- Sudhir Kandolkar, Nutan Bicholkar, Shashank Narvekar, Kamal D’Souza and Anvi Korgaonkar.
The opposition said that it was a tragedy that in democracy, numbers count and not the manner in how they are managed and manipulated.
“The mandate to govern the council by ME has been robbed from the people of Mapusa with money and muscle by the ruling dispensation,” the councillors alleged.
According to the opposition, the people of Mapusa gave a fractured mandate with nine councillors getting elected from each of the panels floated during the civic election, besides two Independents.
“The silver lining was that nine councillors out of 16 nominated by the ME were elected and the same number of candidates was elected from the ruling panel who had fielded candidates in all 20 wards, clearly indicating that the mandate was in favour of ME,” the opposition said.
The ME said some of the councillors elected under its banner have crossed over, betraying the faith of the voters under the guise of development of their wards.
