CANACONA
Upset over the reservation of their ward for one community for the three successive terms, hundreds of voters in Ward 1 at Poinguinim have threatened to boycott the August 10 panchayat polls and future elections, if authorities fail to address their concerns.
Ward 1 in Poinguinim consist of 618 voters, of which 379 voters from other communities are residents of Khalshi, Chiplem, Tirvon, Badegal and Kharegal. They along with 239 voters from the ST community and residents of Marlim-Tirval areas are voters in the Marlim-Tirval Polling Station.
In a memorandum addressed to the Chief Electoral Officer of Goa State Election Commission, voters of Khalshi, Chiplem, Tirvon, Badegal and Kharegal Hamlets have served a notice, threatening to boycott the upcoming panchayat elections .
"For the last three consecutive terms of the panchayat elections, our ward 1 is continuously reserved for ST community," states the memorandum, copies of which have been submitted to the Chief Minister, Collector (South), Canacona Dy Collector, Canacona Mamlatdar and Returning Officer.
The memorandum goes on to mention that the five residential hamlets of Khalshi, Tirvonn, Badegal, Kharegal and Chiplem have 379 voters, all belonging to other categories, while voters residing in Marlim and Tirval, which is also part of Ward 1 have 239 voters belonging to the ST community'.
"Though majority voters in our ward belong to the other categories, our ward has been reserved for the ST community for the last three consecutive terms, including the present term," they stated in the memorandum.
"The reservation for ST community is being deliberately done to do caste politics in our ward with political force."
"In protest against this injustice, residents of Chiplem, Kharegal, Badegal, Khalshi and Tirvon have mutually decided to boycott the village panchayat elections, as well as future elections, in case our grievance is not heard on priority basis," stated the memorandum which has been signed by most of the aggrieved residents.
The residents also complained that the location of the polling station is 10 kms from their localities at Marlim GPS. "To reach the polling booth, we are forced to travel by vehicles, which causes us a lot of inconvenience," informed Sachin Naik, who alongwith several other residents assembled to speak to media persons.
Another voter Surendra Gosavi added, "This is not only unfair and unjust, but also denies our constitutional right to contest panchayat elections."
It may be recalled that about 221voters of Marlim-Tirval, where the polling booth is located at Marlem, had boycotted the last Lok Sabha elections after accusing the government of ignoring basic facilities such as road, electricity and water supply in their area.
Elections in Ward 1, which was reserved for ST, were won by Ramdas Pujari in 2012 and outgoing Poinguinim Sarpanch Jagdish Gaonkar in 2017.
This time, the ward has been double reserved for ST women and three contestants are in the fray, Jotika Gaonkar (wife of the ex-sarpanch), Rasika Velip and Ruthika Gaonkar.
