CANACONA: The candidates of the Canacona municipal elections are leaving no stone unturned to ensure victory. They can even be seen visiting Karwar, Karnataka to meet the voters who have settled there. Some candidates have made elaborate arrangements for food and transport for the voters from their residences to the polling booth on October 25.
Meanwhile, Canacona voters are not pleased with the local BJP leaders. On Sunday evening, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar had corner meetings at Palolem and Rajbagh in Canacona. His speeches were disrupted by power outages, which caused him a great deal of embarrassment.
These two wards are the strongholds of outgoing CMC Chairperson Simon Rebello of Palolem and ex-Chairperson Shyamsundar Desai of Ponsulem. Both of them have strong backing from the locals as well as ex-MLA Vijay Pai Khot, Isidore Fernandes and the business community.
While canvassing, the ex-MLAs are reminding the voters of the development works undertaken by Desai and Rebello, such as cleaning the Palolem beach, beautification of the Canacona market garden, setting up a garbage treatment plant at Dumane (now in ruins after the fire accident), setting up the vegetable market, and bus shelters in all wards.
At his corner meetings, Parsekar assured that the work of the Talpona and Galgibaga bridges and the realignment of the NH-17 will start by December. There was some criticism over the promise, as articulated by social activist R F John, as the twin bridge projects were taken up in 1980, and the land was acquired and compensation paid to the land owners in 1984. Thereafter, every minister from the State and Centre only gave false promises that the construction work of these bridges will commence shortly.
Meanwhile, local MLA Ramesh Tawadkar is busy canvassing for his BJP candidates and is devoting time in Ponsulem ward for his close aide Vishal Desai, who is contesting to dethrone the sitting councillor and two-time chairperson Shyamsundar Desai. In addition to the anti-incumbency factor against the sitting councillors, there is also growing unrest against the reservation system as some wards have remained unchanged for the last four years, while wards that were meant to be reserved have remained under the general category.
