Hand over zilla panchayat elections to SEC: Kamat

MARGAO: Stating that the delay in declaring reservation and delimitation of zilla panchayat elections have created confusion, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat has urged the government to hand over the process of the ZP elections to the State Election Commission. He also said that the Congress will also file a petition before the High Court regarding the same.

Speaking to reporters at Margao along with South Goa District President Joe Dias, he further said that the procedure with regard to ZP elections, besides panchayat and municipality elections need to be handled by the State Election Commission and not by the government.
"The government nor the election has to date not declared the reservation and delimitation of the wards of the ZP constituencies. And as a result, this has created lots of confusion amongst the interested candidates and political parties," he added.

Digambar also informed that in 2017 he had raised this issue in the assembly and then Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar had assured on the floor of the house that all the procedures with regard to the election of ZP, panchayats and municipalities will be handed over to the State Election Commission.
"But despite this assurance, the file pertaining to forthcoming ZP election has not reached to the office of the election commission. There is hardly one month left and they have not yet declared the reservation and delimitation of the constituencies. Such an attitude of the government will surely result in filing lots of petitions before the High Court," he further added.

According to him, the ZP elections can be postponed further but the process should be transparent. He also informed that Mango Foundation has already filed the petition before the High Court.

When asked if Congress party is ready to contest the ZP election on a party-line, he said that the executive committee of Congress has already taken a decision to fight the ZP election on a party line. And the party decision is the final. "If any member of the party had a problem then they should have raised their objection at the time of the meeting, which was called to discuss the same. Reacting to the Chief Minister's statement with regard to constituting the third district in Goa, he said, "This issue was also raised by Congress MLA Ravi Naik in the assembly. If people get fair justice than there is no harm constituting the third district in Goa," he stated.