MARGAO
Joao Francisco Da Costa has won the by-election for ward No VII (general) of the Carmona village panchayat, even as the result has raised hopes of an early election for the post of village sarpanch, which has been lying vacant for three months now.
In a one-sided affair, Joao Francisco Costa won the seat with ease, defeating his rival Suliuano Orfano Luciano D’Costa by a huge margin of 127 votes. While Francisco polled 160 votes, Suliuano ended up in polling only 33 votes.
By-election for ward No VII of Carmona village panchayat was necessitated following the resignation of then panch member Benicio Carvalho.
The by-poll for ward No VII had been in focus for some time now as the post of the sarpanch has been lying vacant for around three months now.
Outgoing sarpanch Savita Mascarenhas had quit office around mid-August last and since then the affairs of Carmona panchayat had been presided over by the deputy sarpanch Vailona Fernandes.
The office of the Directorate of Panchayats had fixed election for the post of sarpanch on September 7, but the election had come a cropper, with a lone panchayat member Sandra Fernandes turning up for the meeting, leaving the panchayat officials with no option but to cancel the election.
The situation then was attributed to the fact that there were two vacancies in the panchayat body, following the demise of panch Josinho Mendes and resignation by another panch Benicio Carvalho. Around that time, another member Allwyn Barretto was also out of station after he had proceeded on leave.
Incidentally, since September 7 till date, the office of the Panchayat Director did not deem it fit to call for election of the Sarpanch even though the seat left vacant after the demise of Josinho was filled up over a month ago.
