Team Herald
MARGAO: Major corruption was unearthed on Saturday when a non-government employee was found working on the sensitive Margao Municipal Council (MMC) wards delimitation process currently underway at the Salcete Mamlatdar office.
When Herald visited Mamlatdar Vishal Kundaicar’s office at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex, the employee ran away through the Mamlatdar’s cabin. A peon in the office had alerted him before he could be caught red-handed. Herald is still verifying the name of the person suspected to be a retired zonal agricultural officer.
The Mamlatdar refused to respond to queries, but claimed he did not know who the person was or what he was doing in the office. However, it is known that the person was called to the office on Saturday under the garb of using his expertise in the electoral process.
Reacting to the development, former state election commissioner Prabhakhar Timble said the power of delimitation in urban bodies should be given to the Election Commission (EC) and that it had to be fair and transparent.
“If private players are influencing the decisions on delimitation, then this exposes the danger of not giving powers to an autonomous body and will jeopardize the confidence of the electorate. When the government is deciding it, the vested interests of the ruling party will tend to influence the delimitation process,” added Timble.
Former member of the law commission, Advocate Cleofato Almeida Coutinho said private individuals could not be permitted to complete the process of delimitation unless public hearings were conducted, and that the government should have no role in this.
He said, “Delimitation has been used as a manipulative tool for a long time. For Assemblies and Parliament, there is a separate delimitation commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge and he functions under a separate law. The Directorate of Municipal Administration has been used by the government to manipulate the wards and rolls.”
He continued, “Even if the EC is given power to delimit, his power deserves to be circumscribed by clear guidelines and rules. Even the SEC cannot be permitted to have arbitrary delimitation. Keep in mind that the SEC is a former civil servant.”
“What is expected from the government machinery is for them to formulate criteria for delimitation and go ahead with it. When they do the pre-publication of the delimitation, they can explain and satisfy the grievances or any lapses brought before them,” said Timble, adding, “The public is invited for suggestions 30-45 days before it is published in the official gazette.
Timble reasoned that if there was no transparency and the delimitation process was subjective and succumbed to the whims and fancies of private players, then the fairness of the election process was derailed. He added that the delimitation should be based on population and not voters, and it lead to uniform continuous contiguous units.
