Councillors forum decries seat reservations at eleventh-hour

VASCO, SEPT 9
The All Goa Councillors Forum (AGCF) has decried the government’s “eleventh-hour” decision to reserve seats for ST, OBC and SC in the forthcoming municipal polls, claiming that this has been done without an authentic data of their population.
The AGC has threatened to file a petition in the high court if malpractices are observed in the decision to reserve ST, OBC and SC seats in the civic polls.
“If any malpractices are observed in the policy decision of reservation, the AGCF has decided to approach the high court,” warned AGCF President and former Mormugao mayor Carlos Almeida.
Almeida criticized the “eleventh hour” decision of state government to hold elections by reserving 19.5% seats for candidates from Other Backward Classes (OBC), 12% seats for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 2% seats for the Scheduled Caste (SC) communities.
“Being the president of the AGCF, I have sought various documents under Right to Information (RTI) Act to ensure that the State government is is unbiased to allocate municipal wards in the reservation categories,” said Almeida.
“We have already sent a memorandum to the chief secretary, Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) and Director of Panchayat (DoP) regarding the reservation for ST, OBC and SC under the Representation of People Act,” he said.
“The government is trying to gain control over the councils by dictating their own terms, despite lacking authentic data on the population of the reserved community.”
“Section 10 of the Goa Municipal Act 1968 is very clear over reservation as the department has to specify the wards in which seats are reserved (SC, ST and OBC), with reference to the concentration of population in the particular wards,” Almeida said.
“The government’s eleventh hour decision to reserve seats for the civic polls has hampered the prospects of aspiring candidates. The government should have announced the list of reserved wards at least six month in advance,” he said.
He alleged that MLAs are lobbing hard to eliminate councillors by reserving their wards.
“If the council election is held as per the reservation quota, why should the same not be applicable to assembly elections? We demand that the next MLA election also be conducted as per the present reservation quota,” insisted Almeida.