State poll panel to reserve, delimit municipal, panchayat wards in Goa: CM

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the assembly on Thursday that reservations of wards for municipal and panchayat elections under different categories will be done exclusively by the State Election Commission (SEC).

Sawant was responding to a question by Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat of the Congress over illegalities in delimitation and reservation of municipal wards, which were rectified by the Bombay High Court in March this year.

In March, the HC's Goa bench set aside a notification issued by the state government's Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) reserving various wards in five civic bodies ahead of elections there.

The DMA had issued the notification on February 4, 2021, reserving various wards in these five civic bodies where elections were held in April. The move was challenged in the HC and the opposition Congress and the Goa Forward Party had then alleged that the DMA's action was politically motivated and done without any logic.

Raising the issue in the House on Thursday, Kamat questioned why reservation of municipal wards was notified by the Directorate of Municipal Administration within a day of a new director taking charge of the DMA.

“The Director of Municipal Administration was transferred and within a day of a new appointment, the reserved wards were notified,” he said.

Kamat recalled several opposition parties had to approach the High Court for rectification of anomalies in reservation.

The chief minister said henceforth, the exercise related to reservations (for SCs/STs/women) and delimitation of municipal bodies and panchayats would be done only by the SEC. PTI RPS RSY RSY