TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Panchayat Minister Dayanand Mandrekar’s plans to hold the upcoming Zilla Panchayat poll on party lines has evoked strong objections from the Zilla Panchayat body, South, as well as from the grassroots panchayati raj institutions.
An agitated South Goa Zilla Panchayat Chairperson Nelly Rodrigues made it amply clear that the government should first devolve powers and functions to the Zilla Panchayats and then talk about holding elections on party lines. “The South Goa Zilla Panchayat is vehemently opposed to elections to the ZP bodies on party lines. We have already adopted a resolution opposing any such move”, Nelly said, while demanding to know the rationale behind going against the democratic principles enshrined in the Indian Constitution. “Today, the government says that states such as Maharashtra and others have switched over to polls on party lines. But, let me remind the government that most of the states have already devolved powers and functions to the Zilla Panchayats in their respective states while Goa is an exception”, she said.
Spokesman of All Goa Panchayat Democratic Forum and Rachol Sarpanch Joseph Vaz said holding elections to the Panchayat raj institutions will take away the freedom of the people at the grassroots level to elect candidates of their choice. “Why is the government trying to bulldoze its way with the proposal again and again? We had opposed the proposal in the past and will oppose it tooth and nail again”, Vaz said.
Convenor of Goa Panchayat Raj Institutions Forum J Santan Rodrigues said the government should work toward decentralisation of powers to the panchayat raj bodies instead of holding elections on party lines. “Why is the government afraid of taking the stake holders into confidence instead of making the announcement unilaterally? We are totally opposed to elections to Panchayat raj bodies on party liens”, Santan asserted.
