Team Herald
PANJIM: Urban Development Minister Francis D’Souza on Monday introduced The Goa Municipalities (amendment) Bill 2015, proposing to increase the number of wards of the 11 municipal councils, which will be going for polls on October 25.
The Bill also seeks to replace the Goa Municipalities (amendment) Ordinance, 2015 which was promulgated by the Governor on June 9.
“As per the census of 2001 and 2011, there has been increase in population of ‘A’ and ‘B’ class municipal councils. However the wards of these councils were not increased,” the Minister said.
“Therefore the Bill seeks to amend sub-section (2) of section 9 of the Goa Municipalities Act, 1968 to have better control and effective development of the wards of ‘A’ and ‘B’ class municipal councils so as to increase the number of wards,” the bill reads.
As per the Bill, the wards of ‘A’ class municipal councils have been increased to 20 from existing 15 and for class ‘B’ the wards have been increased to 15 from the present 10.
For municipalities under class ‘C’, the total number of wards will be 10.
The Bill also seeks reservation of one-third of seats for women in every municipal council along with reservation for scheduled castes, schedule tribes and other backward classes.
The amendment will have a financial implication of Rs 5.40 lakh annually on government.
