Govt had a year to do reservations of wards, says legal expert

Team Herald

PANJIM: Disagreeing with Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant’s statement that the government had no ulterior motive in postponing the panchayat elections, a legal expert said that the Bharatiya Janata Party had one year to do reservations of wards. 

“They (BJP) have time to host the Shiv Sena rebel MLAs, but no time to do reservations,” Adv Cleofato Coutinho said. 

“The High Court has stopped the nonsense going on. This is the first time general panchayat elections have been postponed on some ground or another, if you look at the present scenario it looks like a scandal,” he said.

Coutinho said that it was assumed that the panchayat elections were getting postponed because of the reservation of wards for Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities. 

“The Panchayat Minister and Chief Minister told us that they wanted to hold the elections as per the directions of the Supreme Court but they did not go forward. You can’t say that we have not made reservations. Reservations have to be made, why they weren’t ready?” he questioned.

While his reason was inadmissible by the Supreme Court, the government then said that the elections cannot be held during the monsoon season. The government said that the panchayat elections cannot be held during the rainy season, the High Court wasn’t buying this excuse. You cannot hold elections in the rainy season, why can’t you hold it before the rains?” asked Coutinho.

He said that the government is busy prioritising other works rather than focusing on the important works. They were busy with the Shiv Sena MLAs. All the MLAs seem to be doing civic work which should be done by the panchayats. They should be serious with the legislations,” he said.