Team Herald
PORVORIM: The Opposition as well as the ruling benches on Tuesday cornered the State government over discrepancies in the Other Backward Class (OBC) reservations for the forthcoming panchayat elections. They alleged that wards are not reserved as per the population, and that the Goa State Commission for Backward Classes had failed to provide adequate data to the State Election Commission (SEC).
The government was also questioned about the failure to provide 27 per cent reservation to OBC, for whom only 307 out of 1,528 wards have been reserved across 186 panchayats.
Admitting that OBC has only received 20 per cent seat reservation, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant justified the move, stating that the OBC commission had referred to data from 2013, and also the data available with the Social Welfare Department and the Directorate of Panchayats.
Sawant told the House that the Supreme Court’s triple test guidelines have been followed and that the SEC has independently verified and analysed data, after which the OBC reservations were notified.
He also said that several petitions have been filed in the High Court challenging the OBC reservations and pleaded that the same should be set aside. “Reservation is an SEC subject. Following allegations of manipulation in the reservation process during the last elections, the government handed over the entire responsibility to the SEC and so, the government now has no role to play,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that the government had been fighting for OBC reservation so that no injustice is meted out to any community. “Our intentions were very clear….we sought the postponement of polls on account of the triple test guidelines and the monsoon…we wanted to ensure that every eligible voter can exercise his/her right to vote….during heavy rain, there is possibility of low voter turnout,” he added.
GFP MLA Vijai Sardesai brought to the notice of the House the failure of the government to give 27 per cent reservation to OBC as per mandate. He said that the entire election process was delayed on account of a triple-test, where the government failed to give justice.
Congress MLA Michael Lobo charged that the OBC Commission has not undertaken any survey to collect the data, and in fact were dependent on panchayat department clerks and lower division staff, who were made to call the panchayats on the phone, to get data.
AAP MLA Venzy Viegas and BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar alleged that the reservations are not as per the population and that the data submitted by the Goa State Commission for Backward Classes is wrong. “As a result, there is chaos and the matter has been challenged in Court,” he said. The MLAs said that reservation has been done in those wards where there is no OBC reservation.
