Former chairperson, Devendra Dessai told Herald that during his tenure, the council sent a resolution to increase two wards. He said that Veroda and Comba wards have the maximum number of voters so the CMC proposed to bifurcate Veroda and Comba so the number of wards would reach twelve. Presently, the CMC has ten wards and about 15,000 voters in the vicinity. The councillors wanted equal no of voters in all wards. Veroda and Comba are densely populated while ward no 10, Voddy has just 800 voters on the list.
Since the former two wards have more than 1800 voters, it is proposed to bifurcate these two and create a new ward in either area. The council has requested the DMA to keep transparency while carrying out the delimitation of wards. Dessai said that he wanted a fair and transparent delimitation process. “We have told the DMA to increase a ward each in Veroda and Comba. They should take Cuncolkars into confidence before finalizing the delimitation of wards and must call a public hearing on the delimitation. The government must not repeat the same thing they did during the Zilla Panchayat wards delimitation process,” he said. “We have asked the DMA to be transparent wile reserving the wards for OBC and ST. They must do a survey of wards and must keep the reservation only in those wards where there are maximum numbers of OBC or ST voters,” Dessai added.
He also welcomed the government decision not to have municipal elections on party lines. Chairperson Lendry Mascarenhas echoed his feelings about the same. “On delimitation and reservation of wards, the DMA must respect the council’s resolution. We have sent a proposal for twelve wards and they must stick to our proposal,” said chairperson Lendry Mascarenhas. “I am confident that DMA will not go against our proposal and we will get what we asked for,” said Mascarenhas.
Cuncolim Municipal Council got municipality status in 1988 during the tenure of then Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane. Molu Dessai was the chairperson of this council. In the last 27 years, the population of this town doubled. For better development and uniformity, there is a need of two more wards in this council. Sources from BJP disclosed that some local leaders are trying to increase by four more wards to accommodate themselves in the council election. It is also learnt that local BJP leaders are striving hard to change the reservation criteria for their benefit.
Mascarenhas and Dessai told Herald that they will not allow any type of nonsense in delimitation and also in reservation of wards. Both appealed to the government to declare the delimitation of wards at least in four months in advance.
Meanwhile, there are many aspirants who want to test their luck in the council elections. In Culwada, there are about six candidates who have already started their campaign.
Dessai is not very keen in contesting the council elections while many of the present councilors wanted to try their luck in the coming elections one more time.
Some defeated councilors along with some youth and retired aspirants are all set to make their debuts as councilors. There are still five more months for the elections but some of the candidates have already kicked off their campaign.
