PANAJI: The election of sarpanchas and deputy sarpanchas to 175 village panchayats in the state will be held in the respective panchayat halls or community halls on Monday.
Director of panchayats will depute Returning Officers and election observers besides officials to supervise the election of sarpanchas and deputy sarpanchas. The timing for the filing of nominations will be between 10.30 am to 11 am at the respective village panchayat offices.
The names of the candidates in Tiswadi and other talukas have already been finalised. Many panchayats have decided to have sarpanchas on rotation basis, while other panchayats have agreed to back the candidature of sarpanchas on performance.
In Chimbel, the name of former deputy sarpanch Chandrakant Kunkolkar has been in the forefront while in Se Old Goa, the picture was not clear till late in the evening.
In Sao Mathias village panchayat in Divar, the names of Sadanand Phadte and Sangeeta Harwalkar have been chosen for the posts of sarpanch and deputy sarpanch respectively, while in Goltim-Navelim village panchayat, Snehal Harwalkar has been chosen for the sarpanch’s post (reserved for ladies) and Mario Pinto has been selected for deputy sarpanch’s post.
In St Estevam, the name of Chiara Gomes was making the rounds for the post of the sarpanch, while the candidate for the deputy’s post was to be decided late in the night.
Meanwhile, lobbying was in full swing on Sunday in Sakhali constituency for the election of sarpanchas and their deputies in six village panchayats in the constituency. In Surla village panchayat, the name of Bhola Khodginkar has been finalised for the post of sarpanch. Names in other village panchayats were to be finalised late night.
A series of meetings were held to finalise the names in Bicholim taluka. In some panchayats, more than one nomination will be filed for the sarpanch’s and deputy sarpanch’s posts. The Bicholim taluka consists of 16 village panchayats.
In the five village panchayats of Narva, Mencurem-Dhumase, Van-Mavlinge, Pale-Kotambi and Navelim, the post of sarpanch is reserved for female, while the deputy sarpanch’s post is reserved for female in the five village panchayats of Piligaon, Surla, Velgem, Sal and Shirgaon. Sixteen election officers have been nominated by the BDO office to conduct the election process in the taluka.
The oath-taking ceremony of all the panchayat members will be held on Tuesday morning at BDO offices after which the new panchayats will come into power, said sources.