To be ‘doubly sure’, panchyat polls’ file sent to advocate general Devidas Pangam: Panchayat minister, Mauvin Godinho

MARGAO: The state government has sent the file related to panchayat elections to advocate general (AG) Devidas Pangam for a legal opinion on postponing the polls.
“We have sent the file to the AG to be doubly sure,” panchayat minister, Mauvin Godinho, said on Thursday.
Stating that the government has made it “very clear” that the panchayat polls needed to be postponed, Godinho said, “We believe in following the triple test as mandated by the Supreme Court...There’s time, what’s the hurry. Monsoons have already set in. Elections can be held immediately after monsoons. As such hardly any work can be done during monsoon.”
The term of 186 panchayats in the state ends on June 19.
On Tuesday, chief minister Pramod Sawant had said that he would announce postponement of the panchayat elections before their terms ended. Congress, however, has slammed the government for deciding against holding the polls as per schedule. “The Congress party stand is clear. The government should not delay elections,” Congress’ Goa desk incharge said on Wednesday.
On May 10, the SC had held that no reservation for OBCs can be provisioned for the polls until the triple test formality, including setting up of a dedicated commission to conduct a contemporaneous rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness qua local bodies within the state, is followed “in all respects”.