MAPUSA
Among the bunch of petitions challenging ward reservations filed before the High Court, two former chairpersons have contested the reservation of two wards in Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC).
The two former chairpersons, Michael Carrasco and Prabhakar Vernerkar, in a joint petition have challenged the reservation of Wards 4 and 2 announced for the ensuing civic elections.
The petitioners have prayed that injustice has been done to them as the two wards where they are interested to contest have been reserved continuously for two terms.
While Ward 4 was reserved as OBC in 2015, it has been reserved for women yet again in this election.
Similarly, Ward 2 which was reserved for OBC in 2015 has been once again reserved for women this time around.
The petitioners have also brought to the notice of the court the bias in the reservation process where at least four wards “ 7, 9, 12 and 17 “ have been categorised as general for the second term running.
According to the petitioners, all four wards are represented by outgoing councillors who have been holding senior positions in the BJP hierarchy.
The petitioners have also said that Schedule Caste category has been repeated twice for consecutive terms.
In 2015, Ward 20 was reserved as SC while in the current reservation Ward 11 has been again reserved as SC.
According to former chairperson Michael Carrasco, the reservation should be fair and uniform and declared in advance.
“The election reservation should be fair and square and on a rotation basis. But with BJP at the helm, the entire process is gone for a toss and the reservation and delimitation is done to favour their flock,” Carrasco said.
The High Court has clubbed all the petitions challenging the reservation and delimitation and fixed the matter for final disposal on February 22.
