MARGAO
This question has come to haunt citizens and senior South Goa district administration officials after former Orlim Sarpanch Maria Fernandes has claimed she belongs to the fishermen community “ a claim disputed by the Salcete taluka talathi on grounds of a local inquiry conducted through reliable sources.
In support of her contention, Maria has attached a document issued by the Benaulim-based Niz Ramponkarancho Ekvott, categorically that she belonged to the fishermen community.
The talathi, however, on the other hand, has filed a report stating that she is unable to ascertain the exact caste of the application since different opinions have surfaced during her inquiry with reliable sources.
With just a day to go for the filing of nomination papers for the panchayat election, Maria along with residents of Orlim, Donath Da Costa and Menino Da Silva have posed a simple question to the talathi as well as the Additional Collector Johnson Fernandes and Sub-Divisional Magistrate Uday Prabhudesai is whether the authorities should go by a document issued by an Association or opinion gathered through reliable sources before declaring someone as belonging to a particular caste.
Suspecting hanky panky, Maria along with Donath and Menino went to meet the Additional Collector to find out how the talathi could deny her the caste certificate when her community association has issued her the document. “This is a ploy to deny me my Constitutional right to contest an election. Can a candidate be denied the right to contest based on opinion gathered from reliable sources,” she asked.
Questions are indeed being raised whether a talathi can deny someone of a caste certificate based on reliable sources instead of citing reasons behind his decision. When The Goan contacted Additional Collector Johnson Fernandes on the issue, he has promised to look into the matter.
Both Donath and Menino also questioned the rationale behind the decision to reserve the ward for fishermen when there’s hardly any population in the ward. Menino even went to the extent of blaming the BJP-led government behind the confusion in respect of ward reservations.
When contacted, Salcete Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Uday Prabhudesai told The Goan that his office has issued certificates to all the applicants based on the Samaj documents and the report of the talathis.
“It is only in cases where the talathi and the Samaj documents have differed, I have called for additional documents,” he said.
