Team Herald
PANJIM: Elections to the 1522 wards in 186 village panchayats will be held on June 11. For the first time, two percent of the wards have been reserved for the Schedule Caste (SC) community.
Addressing media persons on Friday, Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho said that as recommended by the State Election Commission (SEC), the government has decided to hold panchayat elections on June 11 and the notification for the polls would be issued after May 10.
“The elections will be held in 186 panchayats that also include the newly recognised Panchayat of Quelossim. The new panchayat has seven wards, hence polling would be held to elect representatives from 1522 wards,” he said in the presence of Panchayats Director Sandhya Kamat.
Godinho said that after the delimitation of wards, an additional 32 wards have been added. The delimitation process has been undertaken based on 2011 census. The delimitation notification is expected to come by Saturday.
“The unique feature of this election is that for the first time there is going to be reservation for SCs. Nine wards have been reserved for SCs, which is almost 2 percent,” Godinho said adding there is also 12 percent reservation for Schedule Tribes (ST), 27 percent for Other Backward Classes (OBC) and 33 percent reservation for women.
The SC reserved wards are in panchayats of Agarwada-Chopdem, Casnem Amere Poroscodem, Advalpal, Tamboxe Mopa Uguem, Torxem, Ibrampur Hankhane, Querim Tiracol, Cotorem and Ona Mauliguem Curchorem. The notification with regard to reservation of wards will be issued by May 9.
The five-year term of the existing panchayat bodies ends on May 26.
Hearing a petition, the High Court of Bombay at Goa had directed the State to hold panchayat elections on or before June 12. The government had earlier announced June 25 as the possible date and later changed it to June 17. On the other hand, the SEC had recommended holding the polls on May 21.
As reported earlier, SEC has already appointed Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers in all 12 talukas.
State Election Commissioner R K Srivastava said the commission will notify the schedule once the government issues the notification of the election date.
“It will start with the displaying electoral rolls in the Panchayats for minimum five days and after seven days the nomination process will start which will go on for a week,” he said.
He said the code of conduct will come into force from first day of the filing nominations and counting would take place keeping a day’s gap after polls.
