PAUL CARVALHO
Most of the sitting councillors of Curchorem-Cacora Municipal Council (CCMC) geared up to contest the elections once again as the State Election Commissioner, Dr M Modassir recently announced that the election for the 11 Municipal Councils will be held on October 25 and the code of conduct will come into force from September 25.
In the jurisdiction of CCMC, there are 12 wards and most of the sitting councillors have shown their willingness to contest the election once again.
As the population has been increased as per census of 2001 and 2011 and to have better and effective development of the wards of the Municipalities, the government has amended the Goa Municipalities Act in the recently concluded Assembly Session to increase wards. According to Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral, the wards under the jurisdiction of CCMC have been increased to 14 from the existing 12 and this has led to an increase in the number of councillors.
Speaking to Herald, Cabral informed that except the reservation, the delimitation of wards and parts are completed and the numbers of wards have been increased to 14 from 12. “Pongriwal with 948 voters and Sasnamoddi (Akshimoddi) with 1151 voters are the two new wards for the forthcoming municipal election,” informed Cabral.
When asked whether he (Cabral) will support any panel as the government has decided not to hold the election on party lines, he said that he will decide later on after seeing who is filing the nomination. “During my tenure as MLA, the elected Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons completed their respective term as agreed upon,” he noted and said that the council has to work and generate more income on their own. He also informed that once completed, the new projects which are coming up in Curchorem will generate around Rs 75 lakhs per month for the municipality. Rating the performance of the incumbent councillors as above average, Cabral said that barring two or three councillors, the other worked and completed various projects in their wards. “They cooperated and helped me to bring various projects to Curchorem,” Cabral asserted.
