The appointment of Kabir Makhija and Kishore Sastry as co-opted Councillors is in total breach and violation of the City of Panaji Corporation Act 2002.
Section 9 (b) of the CCP Act makes a provision to nominate up to five Councillors to the CCP. But in terms of the Act, the nominated Councillors should be persons having special knowledge or experience in municipal administration, engineering, architecture, archaeology, heritage etc. This provision was incorporated in the Act so that the CCP could get the professional advice and guidance of experts in the designated fields and not to misuse the provision to politically rehabilitate former defeated Councillors.
Both Sastry and Makhija do not meet the requirement to be nominated as Councillors as they do not have the necessary special knowledge or experience in the required fields.
On directions of the Panaji MLA, his son the Mayor Rohit Monserrate proposed these names which were recommended to the Government by the then Commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues who merrily acted as a postman.
The intent of the law to create these posts of nominated councillors was to have persons with vast experience in the fields specified in the Act so that they could through their long experience and enhanced knowledge contribute their ideas at meetings and deliberations of the Corporation.
