PANAJI
Scams and land-grabbing tainted Serula communidade with holdings across three adjoining village panchayats will witness next Sunday an exercise to elect its managing committee for the 2022-25 triennium.
Sagar Gaude, the administrator of Communidades (North Zone) has fixed the two-and-half hour period between 10.30 am and 12 noon on Saturday for filing of nominations in his office at Mapusa.
Gaude said, scrutiny will be done between 12 noon and 1 pm, withdrawal of nominations will be allowed between 2 pm and 3 pm and the list of contesting candidates finalised at 4.00 pm the same day (Saturday).
Hotly contested in the past even leading to litigations, the elections to the Serula Communidade draws interest from several quarters and particularly among politicians, owing to its coveted land holdings in the panchayats of Socorro, Salvador do Mundo and Penha da Franca, making up the Porvorim assembly constituency.
For decades it has hit the headlines for shady land deals, many of which are stuck in litigations and criminal investigations, usually involving local as well as State level politicians besides government servants and even top bureaucrats, past and present.
Former Soccoro Sarpanchas Agnelo Lobo and Sandeep Vazarkar have criminal cases booked against them related to irregularities in land deals during their tenures.
Lobo has been Sarpanch of Socorro for several years and multiple times in the past even as he simultaneously held then the position of President or Attorney of the managing committee of the Communidade of Serula.
Vazarkar on the other has been Sarpanch of Socorro for a couple of years in the current term and finished runner-up to Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte in the recent Assembly elections as a candidate of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The shady transactions within the Communidade have been making the news off and on over the last three decades, concurrent to the rapid and haphazard urbanisation witnessed in Porvorim.
Gaude meanwhile has said that due to the large number of 'jonoeiros' and shareholders who comprise the voters of the Communidade, it will not be possible to identify them without any proof and therefore it is mandatory that they carry any one of the proofs of identity prescribed by the State Election Commission.
He has listed nine such identity documents including EPIC, ID cards issued by government departments or corporations, PAN Card, smart or any other card issued by the State government, driving licence or passport among others.
The elections next Sunday will be held at the Sant Gadge Maharaj Hall near Azad Bhavan in Porvorim, Gaude said.
