PANAJI
Former Chief Secretary of the Government of Goa R K Srivastava has taken charge of the post of State Election Commissioner, the head of the State body that manages elections to panchayats and municipalities in the State.
Srivastava’s appointment was approved by the Goa Cabinet in one of its final meetings to be held and announced by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar. Srivastava replaces the outgoing Dr M Modassir who held the post for several years.
The 1984 IAS batch took over as the Commissioner of Goa State Election Commission on Friday.
The Goa State Election Commission is responsible for supervising, control and superintending for the holding of elections to local bodies such as the panchayats, municipalities, Zilla panchayats and the Municipal Corporation of the City of Panaji.
“The foremost task at hand now is to hold the General elections to village panchayats in May 2017. Thereafter elections to two Municipalities - Ponda and Sanquelim - will be held in May 2018,” said R K Srivastava in an official statement.
Srivastava held the posting of Chief Secretary, Government of Goa from October 2014 to December 2016.
“The Commission is a constitutional body and endeavours to conduct elections to local bodies in an impartial, fair and smooth manner, by observing provisions of election laws,” he said.
In addition to the functions of conducting elections to local bodies, the Commission also functions as a quasi-judicial body when it comes to deciding and disposing of appeals with regards disqualification of the members who are contesting the elections.
Srivastava has in the past worked as Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and was appointed by Election Commissioner of India as observer on seven different occasions.
In the beginning of his career, Srivastava served as Deputy Commissioner of four districts in Arunachal Pradesh, and in various capacities in the Government of Delhi and Municipal Corporation of Delhi. He worked as Principal Secretary, Urban Development, Government of Delhi and was Principal Secretary in various departments in Government of Goa.
