MAPUSA
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday assured the State Legislative Assembly that henceforward the reservation and delimitation process in panchayat and municipal elections will be conducted by the State Election Commission (SEC).
“We are giving all rights of holding the panchayat and municipal elections in future to the SEC. Let them do the reservation as per the policy,” Sawant said.
The CM was responding to the Leader of Opposition who said due to the faulty reservation process carried out by the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) in the recent civic elections in the State, several individuals had to approach the courts for relief.
He said for reasons best known to the government, the earlier DMA was transferred close to the municipal elections and the new appointed DMA did the reservation process within a day.
He further said when the High Court struck down the faulty reservation process and asked the DMA to redo it as per the Constitution, the government preferred to appeal against the order in the Supreme Court.
“I don’t know why the government chose to make it a prestige issue and decided to move the SC when the reservation policy is very clear. The government must have spent lakhs if not crores to defend the case in the SC,” he said.
It may be recalled, the Supreme Court had upheld the order of the Bombay High Court at Goa cancelling elections to five municipalities over irregularities in reservation of wards for Scheduled Tribes and women.
The SC had also found fault with the Goa government for appointing a service law secretary as the State Election Commissioner and directed that SEC should not hold dual responsibilities.
LoO pointed out that the SC order turned out to be historic as it directed all the State governments to appoint SECs who are independent and not serving government officials.
“Wasn’t it the duty of the State Election Commissioner to tell the DMA that reservation was not as per the Constitution and ask the DMA to rework on it?” he asked.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant informed that the SEC at that point of time had resigned and therefore the government had to appoint a new person to the post.
“We needed some time to appoint a new SEC and therefore gave the charge to the law secretary,” Sawant said.
He further said that the reservation policy was done as per the 2011 census and therefore this could have led to some errors cropping up in the reservations.
Fatorda MLA and Goa Forward Party chief, Vijai Sardessai said it was obvious that the government used the DMA to carry out the reservations as per their wishes.
“The SC order is a slap on the State BJP government and all BJP governments in other States in the country,” Sardessai said.
It may be recalled, in municipalities where there was no dispute, the civic elections were held in March while polls to the five civic bodies “ Margao, Mapusa, Mormugao, Quepem and Sanguem “ where individuals had challenged the reservation process in court were finally held in April.
