Panaji, March 20: The Goa Zilla Parishad polls scheduled for March 24 has been postponed due to the novel coronavirus outbreak and a new date for it would be announced later, State Election Commissioner RK Srivastava said on Friday after a meeting with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.

The polls were originally scheduled for March 22 but had to be pushed back on Thursday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a voluntary shutdown on Sunday called Janta curfew. Catch all the live updates related to coronavirus outbreak in India and abroad.

The move, announced by the PM during a national address on Thursday, seeks to keep people indoors between 7am and 9pm on Sunday in a bid to stall the spread of the novel coronavirus. Meanwhile, Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai welcomed the decision to postpone the polls.

"We now hope the Goa government will get down to honestly and seriously preparing for the worst and enforcing social distancing, if need be, with complete lockdown as called for by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said.