MAPUSA
Enthused with the achievement of the petitioners in the ongoing saga over ward reservations in the civic elections, some more individuals are queuing up to challenge the fresh reservation of wards in Mapusa.
A resident of Mapusa, Dominic Alphonso, has decided to challenge the reservation of Ward 11 as Scheduled Caste (women) in the High Court.
“We have been denied an opportunity to contest from Ward 11 which has been reserved for women for the last three terms. We had no problem when the ward was reserved for SC (General) but reserving it for women for the third time is injustice to us and unacceptable,” said Alphonso, who is the husband of outgoing councillor Annie Alphonso.
Former councillor Annie Alphonso was elected from Ward 11 in the 2015 civic elections when the ward was reserved for women.
As reported by The Goan, another individual and aspirant Sandeep Mirajkar from Ward 11 has already made his intention of approaching the HC against the reservation of the ward.
In the meanwhile, another aspiring candidate Sitaram Kanolkar (Babani) from Ward 3 has also decided to knock the doors of the HC against the decision or reserving the ward as Scheduled Tribe.
He blamed the BJP government for deliberately reserving the ward as ST when in the earlier reservation it was kept for OBC (General).
“Looking at the massive support I was getting in the ward, the ruling government has changed the ward to ST. I have decided to challenge the decision in the HC,” Kanolkar said.
However, one of the senior lawyers said the High Court may not be inclined to entertain the petitions at this stage.
“If there is stark constitutional infraction, the court may consider. But otherwise I think the HC will not interfere. Entertaining petitions again and again will be like a joke then,” the lawyer said, requesting anonymity.
He said sometimes overlapping may happen while doing the reservation process which cannot be strictly considered as wrong.
