Speaking to Herald on the sidelines of the launching of website of the Sao Jose de Areal village panchayat on Thursday, the Urban Development Minister said that the government will take a call on this. “Let us first evaluate the efficacy of the decision to hold the Zilla Panchayat polls on party lines. The district Zilla Panchayat bodies, I feel, are the right bodies where the government will be in a position to evaluate the success or failure of the decision to hold the election on party lines”, he said.
Incidentally, the Urban Development Minister in the past had favoured Municipal polls on party lines, but now appears to be treading cautiously to the move in the wake of all round criticism to the government’s proposal.
Meanwhile, asked about the status of the delimitation of the Municipal wards before the elections scheduled around November this year, D’Souza said that Director of Municipal Administration will first undertake the exercise of rationalisation of the Municipal wards before taking up work on the delimitation. “We have come across huge disparities in the composition of wards in the Civic bodies. We have started the process of rationalisation of the wards to do away with the disparity in the voters”, he added.
