{"id":6129,"date":"2026-04-06T14:21:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/?p=6129"},"modified":"2026-04-06T14:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T08:52:11","slug":"mapusa-group-submits-proposal-to-introduce-ward-sabhas-nagar-sabha-in-goa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/mapusa-group-submits-proposal-to-introduce-ward-sabhas-nagar-sabha-in-goa\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapusa Group Submits Proposal to Introduce Ward Sabhas, Nagar Sabha in Goa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Panaji, April 6, 2026:<\/strong><\/em><br><em><strong>A civil society group from Mapusa, under the banner \u201cTogether Mapusa,\u201d has submitted a draft proposal to the Secretary\u00a0 of Municipal Administration seeking amendments to the Goa Municipalities Act to introduce Ward Sabhas and Nagar Sabhas in the state.<\/strong><\/em><br><br>The proposal, titled \u201cThe Goa Municipalities (Amendment) Bill, 2026,\u201d aims to strengthen urban governance through greater public participation, transparency, and accountability in municipal functioning.<br><br>Focus on Participatory Democracy<br><br>The draft highlights that while Article 243S of the Constitution mandates Ward Committees in municipalities with populations above three lakh, it does not provide for Ward Sabhas\u2014assemblies of all registered voters in a ward.<br><br>The group argues that Ward Sabhas would enable direct citizen participation, similar to Gram Sabhas in rural areas, allowing voters to play an active role in decision-making rather than being limited to electing representatives.<br><br>Key Proposal Highlights<br><br>Introduction of statutory Ward Sabhas at ward level<br><br>Creation of a Nagar Sabha\u2014an assembly of all municipal voters<br><br>Institutionalising public participation in budgeting and planning<br><br>Strengthening accountability in urban local bodies<br><br><br>Goa Context Highlighted<br><br>The memorandum points out that Goa\u2019s municipal councils are relatively small, making direct democracy models more feasible.<br><br>It also notes the absence of any equivalent to Gram Sabhas in urban areas, calling it an \u201canomaly\u201d that needs correction. The proposal argues that Ward Sabhas and Nagar Sabhas could bridge this gap and improve governance at the local level.<br><br>National Comparison<br><br>The document states that only a few states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka have adopted stronger participatory frameworks, while many others continue to rely solely on Ward Committees.<br><br>Call for Government Action<br><br>The group has urged the state government to examine the draft bill and take necessary steps for its approval and implementation.<br><br>The memorandum was signed by Adv. Mahesh J. Rane (President) and Jitesh J. Kamat (General Secretary), with a copy marked to the Urban Development Department, Government of Goa.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Panaji, April 6, 2026:A civil society group from Mapusa, under the banner \u201cTogether Mapusa,\u201d has submitted a draft proposal to the Secretary\u00a0 of Municipal Administration seeking amendments to the Goa&hellip;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-story"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gaonkaari.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG-20260406-WA0030.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6130,"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6129\/revisions\/6130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaonkaari.com\/mr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}