GFP claims mischief in Margao municipal ward restructuring

Panaji: Goa Forward Party has raised concerns over the reduction in the number of wards in the Margao Municipal Council to 24 from 25 and has blamed govt for trying to confuse the opposition.GFP president Vijai Sardesai said that the party has begun the process to appeal to the judiciary for clarity. “We have served a notice, we are going to court because we want clarity about the date for the elections, reservation of the wards and how many wards will be there,” said Sardesai.Through a gazette notification, govt has redrawn the wards of all the municipal councils ahead of the coming elections. Sardesai said that the state cabinet approved a proposal to increase the wards in the Margao municipality to 27 wards.

“The Margao Municipal Council area includes Fatorda constituency, Margao constituency and Curtorim constituency’s housing board area. We still don’t know which ward the 25th ward has been merged with and the only ones who know it are the State Election Commission and BJP. This is our main problem. After delimitation, the next step is reservation. If the 25th ward is merged, then what is the OBC, ST and SC percentage in that ward? These details are not clear,” said Sardesai.He blamed BJP for “gross abuse of the principles of law and democratic values”, particularly the misuse of govt machinery for electoral gains.