PANJIM: Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho on Wednesday said that the government has given all the data of Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities to the State Election Commission (SEC), who will have to decide on reserving wards for them.
Speaking to media persons after the Supreme Court turned down the Goa government’s special leave petition seeking more time to complete the process of holding panchayat elections, Godinho said, “We had approached Supreme Court because our stand was that ward reservation has to be given to OBC communities in panchayat elections. Supreme Court had also mandated all States to use OBC data properly while reserving wards and then to hold elections.”
Godinho said that since the government could not complete the OBC data properly, approached the Apex Court seeking more time to hold panchayat elections latest by September 12. But since the Supreme Court upheld the directives of the High Court of Bombay at Goa, the government has now handed over the OBC data based on previous census and information which was in the domain of the Goa State Commission for Backward Classes to the State Election Commission (SEC) for appropriate decision.
