Their allegation is that there are ulterior plans that are aimed at weakening vote bases of specific panchas and sarpanchas by selectively removing or adding voters to certain wards, with the result that in some cases there will be panchas who will no longer be voters in ward they have been representing. There are also concerns about how some wards have a reduced number of voters while other wards in the same village have a comparatively larger number of voters. Some panchas of Salcete have gone to the authorities with their complaints.
This is what the panchas are seeking – that the divisions of wards be by geographical boundaries; no duplication where the same house number should not be in two wards; uniform division of wards where number of voters in each ward does not differ by a huge amount; more time for checking and scrutiny of objections. The last has been partly met by the State Election Commission that has extended the time for submission of views on the draft panchayat ward delimitation proposal that was made public on February 24 till March 4 as against the earlier date of March 2. The SEC has also stated that the delimitation of wards has been done using a web-based system, that the wards are constituted considering the geographical contiguity and natural boundaries and number of voters in each.
This is a draft delimitation proposal that has been made public and the final one will be completed after considering the suggestions with required alterations or corrections as submitted by the people. It is important that the delimitation process is correct in all respects and that the procedure is fully followed. That there are already issues being raised should compel the State Election Commission to consider all the suggestions and objections that are received and not conduct the scrutiny process of suggestions merely to meet the rule book. For that, every suggestion has to be considered and decisions taken based on merit. There should be no other consideration by which the delimitation process is completed.
It is pertinent to recall that exactly a year ago, after the elections to the municipal councils in Goa had been announced and the process started, the High Court of Bombay at Goa had quashed and set aside the reservations to five municipal councils and directed that the reservations of the wards be notified again after corrections. It was a rare decision to halt an election process that had already commenced for discrepancies in the reservation process. The State Election Commission, at that time headed by another Commissioner, had been pulled up for the errors. The State does not require a repeat of such an episode and though that related to reservations, the delimitation process of the panchayats should be free of errors.
While the process has to be free from errors, the current and former panchas have to be prepared for changes in the wards and accept the alterations if these are justified when the final delimitation is published. Not all changes in wards can have an ulterior motive and changing demographics will result in wards being changed. But, if there is a deliberate attempt to marginalise the political career of a particular panch, then it is wrong. Since the final list will go to the government before it is published, the latter also has a responsibility to ensure that there are no deliberate alterations done in the delimitation process. Essentially, the government and the State Election Commission have to work together with the people to make the panchayat elections error free.
