Calangute poll postponed, action against officials mooted
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 23 April 2012 16:04 IST
The state election commission has postponed the Calangute panchayat election for 21 May, due to manipulation in the delimitation of wards.
The SEC has also recommended suspension of relevant officers at taluka and panchayat level for the mess up.
Elections in the rest of the state however would be held on 16 May, as scheduled.
The action was initiated late last night, few hours before the nominations began from today morning.
The officers alleged to have been involved in the manipulation are Bardez BDO Shivprasad Naik, Calangute panchayat secretary Subodh Prabhu and talathi Mahesh Samant.
Director of Panchayats Menino D’Souza has assured to act against the officials.
A complaint in this regard was made by former Calangute sarpanch Joseph Sequeira.
He brought it to the notice of the SEC the manipulation made in the corrigendum issued for delimitation, by simply moving large number of voters to another ward without proper justification.
The corrigendum was issued on 21 April, two days prior to the beginning of nominations.
The law however does not permit any changes in the ward structure after five days remaining to beginning of the election process.
The SEC thus refused to accept the corrigendum issued to earlier delimitation notification issued on 14 April.
The 11-member Calangute panchayat is one of the important panchayats of coastal Goa having beach tourism as its prime activity.
