Margao (Goa): Congress in Goa party has accused BJP-led Goa Government of making mockery of democracy during the whole process of conducting Panchayat elections purely to serve its political interest and not of the people.
The election for 180-odd panchayat bodies in Goa us scheduled on June 11.
“The manipulations done by CM Manohar Parrikar and his coalition partners during delimitation is nothing but setting an example before the younger generation that politics means only manipulation and autocracy,” All India Congress Committee secretary Girish Chodankar has said in a statement released here.
“The panchayat election neither provides level playing field nor a real democracy,” he has alleged.
He pointed out that Goa government has brazenly violated the Goa Panchayati Raj Act when
Article 243 K specifically gives powers to delimit and reserve the wards to the Goa State Election Commission and not the state government.
He observed that Goa State Election Commission has filed an affidavit in the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court clearly stating that it is the constitutionally empowered authority to delimit and reserve wards while government is illegally taking over these constitutionally defined powers.
“People have reacted sharply to the delimitation manipulations even by threatening to boycott the elections since there are blunders created of dividing the voters of the same locality and even of the same family in two different wards. These are not human errors but deliberate moves made to benefit certain candidates of the ruling parties,” Chodankar commented.
In a similar manner, alleged Chodankar, that the BJP-led government has reserved wards to qualify or disqualify certain candidates irrespective of presence of reserved category voters in the locality.
“The government has not followed any transparent criteria while doing reservation of all categories. In some cases where reservation was not possible, ward numbers were changed to suite the needs of the BJP,” he said.
“It is being done in a dictatorial style and arbitrary manner by disrespecting rules, laws and democratic practice,” Chodankar added. He said the government is murdering democracy every day, they have compromised free and fair elections that is the foundation of any democracy.
“People are loosing confidence in democratic values and are feeling Fraustated that despite defeating them at general elections they formed government through wrong means and making Goa jungal Raj,” he claimed.
Team TNV
