The Bill has proposed amendment of section 2 of the Act with clause 16 (A) incorporated while it further sought amendment of section 117 of the Act to provide that elected members of North and South Goa ZPs will be 25 each.
The recently held ZP polls were held on party lines with the ruling alliance, BJP-MGP-GVP, contesting on the party symbols while Congress and NCP boycotted the polls. The cabinet had approved the amendment and a Goa Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 was notified.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was quoted as saying that the decision to have ZP elections on party lines was taken as there has been a lot of instability in Zilla bodies. The election constituencies, which were 30 in North and 20 in South, were also amended to 25 each.
The Bill further sought to insert new section 133 A after section 133 of the Panchayat Raj Act to enable political party to sponsor its candidates contesting the polls and allow Independent candidates to contest as Independents.
The government also introduced three other Bills – The Goa State Commission for Backward Classes (Amendment) Bill, 2015; The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Goa Amendment) Bill, 2015; and The Goa Appropriation Bill, 2015.
