VASCO: From senior leaders to fresh faces in the fray, a majority of the people who are involved in active municipal politics in the port town have serious concerns over the delimitation process of the municipal wards.
Officially the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) is yet to approve the draft copy of delimitation of municipal wards prepared by officials of Mormugao Mamlatdar office but the draft copy has already been circulated amongst the aspirants intending to contest the forthcoming Municipal elections with new five wards under Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC).
While the opposition says that the delimitation has been done suiting a few leaders backed by the BJP, people also allege that the formula of equal distribution of votes was not followed in the process. They state that if the same draft is finalised by DMA, then people in the port town fear that many upright candidates aspiring to take active interest in politics would be deprived.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Aam Admi Party (AAP) had demanded that a free and fair practice be followed before finalising the draft delimitation plan. “We have seen the draft copy which has not been prepared looking at ground realities. In the process of increasing the wards there is total confusion and inequality in distribution of vote share to each wards which is totally unfair and the government should take this issue seriously,” said Leader of opposition in MMC, Neny D’Souza.
The draft delimitation has also left a few councillors unhappy. As per the new draft copy several wards have been marked without geographical continuity. “I am not happy with the way the draft proposal of ward delimitation has been carried out. I feel that a few politicians have manipulated and the draft is possibly made under their guidance only to ensure that upcoming leaders who they consider as threat in future are suppressed,” said councillor Fiola Rego.
Similar concerns were raised by former MMC chairperson and councillor Manesh Arolkar. “Although personally I don’t have any issues it is a fact the draft delimitation proposal is a complete mess and wards have been designed to settle political scores killing opportunities for upcoming leaders,” he told Herald.
While there is anger among established politicians, aspirants are upset with the way wards have been reshaped to add up five new wards in MMC. Interestingly, the draft copy of the new delimitation of wards (copy with Herald) reveals that ward numbers 1 to 9 have 2066 to 2641 voters, while ward numbers 10 to 25 have 2030 to 3681 voters. This has upset many in the port town with resentment against the delimitation growing, and there are fears that people may take to the streets to protest the draft delimitation proposal.
