Church threatens to boycott rigged panchayat polls
PTI, PANAJI | 04 May 2012 19:31 IST
Goa Church has warned that it would appeal the people to boycott the forthcoming panchayat election if the state government did not cancel the "rigged" process.
Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP), a wing of Goa Church, has written to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, saying that there was growing unrest amongst the people about the process of delimitation and reservation of wards.
CSJP executive secretary, Fr Maverick Fernandes, said that government should put the process on hold within seven days.
The polls for 180-odd bodies is scheduled for May 16. More than 10,000 candidates have already filed nominations.
But the civil right groups and Goa Church have alleged that process of delimitation of wards was rigged.
"CSJP hopes that the government will take urgent steps in the right direction to ease the growing public unrest and ensure free and fair elections to the village panchayats which fits within the scheme of `zero tolerance to corruption'," Fernandes said in his letter to Parrikar.
