MAPUSA
The government has done injustice to the OBC community by not sharing the OBC data with the State Election Commission (SEC), said Aldona MLA Carlos Ferreira and further opined that the absence of OBC reservation in the notification could be a ploy to delay the panchayat elections.Ferreira, on Monday, also said that the sequence of events that led to keeping the OBC out of the reservation showed the government’s intent to marginalise the OBC community.
“The government has conducted the previous panchayat elections by including OBC reservation. The government could have shared this data with the SEC. The government's act of not sharing and withholding the data amounts to grave injustice to the OBC community. It is very clear that the government does not want to give reservation to OBCs,” Ferreira said.
The Aldona MLA said the SEC had sought data on OBCs from the government in compliance with the Supreme Court directives and had commenced the reservation process.
He said the SEC order in the gazette notification mentions that the government returned the reservation proposals of 186 panchayats to the commission after completing the consultation process on May 26, but the government failed to provide data on OBC reservations.
“By not including OBC reservation for the August 10 polls, will compel some people to approach the court for relief. This could be a deliberate ploy by the government to postpone the elections by gaining backdoor approval from the court to obtain an extension for the polls,” he said.
Slamming the “manipulative” approach by the government to postpone the polls, he said this does not augur well for the people of Goa and the country.
