Margao group too to knock doors of court

MARGAO, OCT 2
A group of prospective candidates under the banner of People’s Choice has resolved to knock the doors of the Judiciary seeking justice in the reservation of Margao Municipal wards for the ST, OBC and women.
The group has further decided to field candidates in certain wards of the Margao Civic body to defeat the vested interests involved in manipulating the reservation of wards.
Addressing a press conference, Cryodon Madeira said the Director of Municipal Administration has committed glaring irregularities while carrying out the process of reservations. For instance, he said, ward No 3 has been reserved for ST this time though the ward was reserved for women in the current term.
He said ward No 4 has been reserved for the ST women even though it is an open secret that the ward has hardly 150 ST voters and blamed GPCC general secretary Vijay Sardessai for the situation. Madeira also lambasted the DMA for effecting changes to the wards without taking the people into confidence and sans inviting objections and suggestions from the voters.
Laurel Abranches took exception to the issuance of caste certificates without following due procedure. He said the caste certificate is being issued by the authorities on the basis of  a plain affidavit and a certificate issued by the Samaj. “There is no procedure to conduct a detailed inquiry whether the person belongs to the particular Samaj or not”, he said.
Soccoro D’Souza said his Constitutional right to contest an election has been violated by the reservation of ward No 3 for ST in an arbitrary manner. “We had already issued a legal notice to the government. The petition will be filed in the high court next week’, he said, and charged the government for issuing the notification on ward reservation on Friday to prevent aggrieved parties from filing a writ petition in the high court before the commencement of the election process.
Cedric D’Costa and Savio Dias also spoke and maintained that wards in both Margao and Fatorda area of the Margao Municipal Council has been manipulated to suit the interests of Chief Minister, Digambar Kamat and Vijay Sardessai.