MAPUSA
While the State Election Commission has initiated the process for the delimitation of village panchayat wards, the number of wards is not expected to increase in Bardez taluka but in bid to bring uniformity, the number of voters is expected to rise in wards.
The mamlatdars and joint mamlatdars who have been appointed as Electoral Registration Offices (EROs) are tasked with the job to conduct the delimitation process in the State ahead of the panchayat elections which is likely to be held in June.
In fact, the draft delimitation proposals for the village panchayat wards have been prepared and kept open for public objections and suggestions until March 4.
In Bardez taluka there are 33 village panchayats which have a total of 279 wards.
A senior official in the mamlatdar office informed that although the wards have been reconstituted based on geographical continuity, the number of wards have remained the same.
“This time every ward is expected to see a slight rise in the number of voters as compared to the last elections. But the number of wards has not been touched. As much as possible we have tried to keep uniformity in the number of voters in all the wards,” the official said.
In the 2017 panchayat election, the Directorate of Panchayats had increased two wards each in Tivim and Nerul village panchayats. Consequently, Bardez had eight panchayats with 11 wards each, nine panchayats with nine wards, 15 panchayats with seven wards and one panchayat had five wards.
Sarpanch of Bastora, Ranjit Usgaonkar informed that according to the new draft delimitation plan the number of wards has remained the same but some houses have been shifted from one ward to another.
“We are analyzing the geographical contiguity carried out in ward 4 and 6 and accordingly raise objections if need be,” Usgaonkar said.
Former sarpanch of Ucassaim, George D’Souza also said that there will be no changes in the number of wards in the panchayat as the population of the village was less than 5,000.
For the first time the SEC will be finalizing the delimitation of wards for the panchayat election which was hitherto carried out by the State government through the Director of Panchayats.
The commission had initiated the delimitation process in December last year even as the mamlatdars had utilized the draft electoral roll of the Goa Legislative Assembly published in November 2021 for the process.
