MARGAO, SEPT 7
The BJP has told the government to formulate a clear-cut policy on seat reservation for the ensuing municipal polls and rectify the lacuna in the constitution of wards before the polls.
While demanding the policy on sea reservation in the absence of any available data on the exact percentage of OBC and ST population ward-wise, Leader of the Opposition, Manohar Parrikar feared that the absence of data on OBC and ST population will be used by the he ruling party to manipulate ward reservation against the opposition.
He demanded that the government immediately withdraw the ward division notified by the Director of Municipal Administration and constitute the wards based on geographical contiguity done by the Election Commission.
Replying to a question, he said that there’s still time to formulate a policy on ward reservation as well as constitution of wards based on geographical contiguity. “If the government has the will, the division of wards can be done within four weeks time”, he said, adding that it should not take much time to formulate a policy on ward reservation.
Fatorda MLA Damu Naik flanked by BJP-backed Councilors Kamlini Painginkar, Narayan Fondekar and Raju Shirodkar said that the constitution has not only confused the voters, but left open manipulation of wards by the ruling party against the opposition.
He demanded to know how the Director of Municipal Administration can notify the ward constitution based on 2005 data when several new houses and new voters have been included in the electoral rolls.
“This has given wide scope for the ruling party members to manipulate the wards to their advantage”, he said, while demanding division of wards based on geographical contiguity.
Incidentally, a group of Congress-backed Councillors had last week approached the Salcete Mamlatdar Paresh Faldessai to rectify the anomalies in the ward constitution based on the 2005 data.
They too had demanded necessary changes be effected in the rolls taking into account the new houses that have come up in the wards during the last five years.
