Goa Forward Party on Thursday asserted that there can be no mass deletion of names from electoral rolls on the ground of acquisition of Portuguese passport unless the procedure of giving notice of deletion is served on the persons.
The GFP has said the party will take up the issue with the election authorities if any person approaches it with a complaint that his or her name has been deleted without giving notice on grounds of acquisition of Portuguese passport.
“The prescribed authority of the central government under the Indian Citizenship Act has to first determine acquisition or loss of citizenship before the Election Commission of India takes any adverse action on the matter,” GFP President Prabhakar Timble told the media on Thursday.
He said the GFP is of the opinion that the issue can be resolved through an executive order by granting the privilege of voting to Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) along with other benefits already granted.
“If a green card holder in USA can become the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and Indian businessmen are allowed to establish and administer projects in foreign countries, what’s the harm if overseas Indians are allowed to vote? The bar or prohibition could be to contest elections and occupy public offices,” he added.
Hitting out at the BJP government for its neglect and carelessness in handling genuine problems of the seafarers’ community, Timble demanded the immediate establishment of the Seafarers' Cell to address the grievances of the seafarers as well as for better coordination with shipping companies to exploit more job opportunities for Goans. Recalling that the BJP had made the promise in 2012, the Goa Forward Party was critical that the proposal has been kept in cold storage.
Party leader Frank Viegas said the delay is causing loss and gross inconvenience to the seafarer community of Goa. “It is evident from the case of William Mascarenhas from Sanguem whose family received the post-mortem report in Turkish and is waiting for a report in a language intelligible to them. There are many such instances wherein the government should have intervened to ameliorate the agony of seafarers," he added.
Navelim ZP member, Edwin (Cipru) Cardozo, questioned the BJP about its promise to start a branch of the Passport Department in South Goa despite the BJP government at the Centre and with two Ministers from Goa in the central cabinet. “People of South Goa were promised by the BJP to open a passport branch in South Goa. There’s still no sign of the passport branch till date,” he rued.
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