MARGAO : Started with no buzz, the political momentum seems to be gaining some speed. Councillor aspirants are knocking the doors of voters post 8pm.
Big names like Tito Cardozo, CamiloBarreto, D P Naik, RamdasHazare, ArthurD’Silva have begun their campaigns and have started playing their cards of ST, OBC and women reservations rights to make internal panels.
But everyone’s struggling to come to terms with how the new wards carved out to take the tally of wards from 20 to 25 is done by creating absurd divisions. Wards 8 and 9 are divided at various parts of the Fatorda constituency wherein bylanes have homes and housing colonies to the right of the same lane in one ward and the left of the lane belonging to another ward. Neighbours opposite each other are voting in two separate wards.
“ I am contesting from ward 10 and ward 08. My voters are equally divided and are located in two different wards. Again my sitting councilor is ward 09 is an ST candidate and now the reservation is for OBC. So I forced to prop up a AnupShirodkar and hold back Carmin from contesting. This delimitation is very messy,” explains Ramdas Hazare
Similarly Tito Cardozo shows us how the ST, OBC population is his ward is exactly divided into equal halves into ward 08 and ward 09 similarly how people across the street fall into two different wards. Tito says the government needs to have a proper white paper and study as to how this delimitation is done and justify this process.
“ My gada is in ward 08 and my home which is like 50 meters away is in ward 09. I play an active role in local politics and it reflects badly as to how this delimitation is done. And the problem has just begun,” explains one Seby Fernandes from Borda.
Seby and Tito question to how post-election, development works that need to be taken up with these boundaries, will have chaotic consequences.
“ Does in mean in a lane, I build the storm water drain and the pavement to the right side of the road and the next door councilor will supervise construction of a drain and sidewalk on the left side of the same lane? Or do I build and develop a children’s park on the right side of the road and make it unavailable for kids on the left of the same street?
While sitting MLA Vijai Sardesai who’s got a mini panel of 12 people contesting these poles feels that the government has initiated the cheating process in these polls with the whole delimitation done in an unfair manner cutting across communities , former Margao MLA Babu Naik also faces the heat of delimitation and has moved out of his ward to chance on the Moti Dongor wards
But for some like Avinash Shirodkar and few others they openly admit as to how they were very much aware over a year back as to how delimitation will look like and had already diverted all their tenders and contracts to be executed into the neighboring ward which is now delimitated in their new turf their contesting.
Thus for some, a “planned setting” has worked perfectly while for many who want to serve, the de-limitation will cause development roadblocks in Margao.
