Team Herald
PANJIM: The State Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to issue an Ordinance to amend the Goa Municipalities Act so as not to hold elections two months before the date of expiry of the term of the Council and not later than three days before the date of such expiry.
The Goa Municipalities Act (Amendment) Ordinance 2023 further states that counting and election results will be declared before the date of end of the tenure of the outgoing council.
In 2020-21, the Municipality elections were postponed by almost six months after expiry of the term in October 2020 in view of Covid pandemic.
The Ordinance also seeks to amend the Election Rules under the Act. The amendment speaks about voting rights to new voters who are included in the electoral roll, which are now being published after every quarter instead of earlier electoral rolls published as on January 1, every year.
A Section 18 A inserted in the Act states that, “Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or any other State law or rules, the election of council shall not be held earlier than two months before the date of expiry of the term of the office of the councillors of the Council to which such election is to be held and shall not be later than three days before the date of such expiry,” the amendment stated.
The amendment also states that the counting of the votes has to be completed and results needs to be declared before the expiry of the council term.
According to the government electoral rolls are being published frequently that is after every quarter as against the initial trend of publication on the first day of January, every year.
“Now due to this routine publication of electoral rolls, the new voters who are added in these publications should be also given the right to vote,” the amendment stated.
Further, the Cabinet has granted ex-post facto approval for extension in service to PWD Principal Chief Engineer Uttam Parsekar till January 31, 2024 in public interest.
The Cabinet also granted ex-post facto approval for expenditure sanction for an amount of Rs 2.24 crore towards procurement of additional 20,000 Truenat kit for various hospitals and health centres.
