PANAJI
Independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar has said that political apathy shown by all party leaders was responsible for non-reservation of seats for members of Scheduled Tribe community in Goa Assembly elections.
The MLA from Sanguem, Gaonkar, led a delegation of the leaders from tribal community on Monday submitted a memorandum to the Government demanding reservation of assembly seats for ST candidates in the state.
The delegation also warned of moving the court seeking justice in case the government fails to take action on their demand within a week.
Gaonkar said that reservation of seats should be done before the term of this legislative assembly which would be ending on March 15, 2022.
"We have already missed almost three terms (15 years), now the community can't afford to lose additional 5 years", said Gaonkar.
He said if the state government pursues the matter with the central government the reservation for the ST community could be possible before the next state assembly elections.
The memorandum has been submitted to the Election Commission of India (through Chief Secretary of Goa and the Chief Electoral Officer), Ministry of Law and Justice, Delimitation Commission of India, National Commission for Schedule Tribes.
Article 332 of the Constitution of India, Section 9 of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and section 17 of the Goa Daman and Diu Reorganisation Act 1987 have the provisions for reservation of seats for ST community.
It may be noted that after the caste survey in 2003, Pernem constituent assembly was reserved for the Scheduled Cast candidates in 2008. However, the Scheduled Caste community has been completely deprived of their constitutional rights of proportional representation under Article 332 of the Constitution of India. Many states have given proportional representation to Schedule Tribes and Scheduled Caste candidates.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) which completed the survey before 2013 and has identified the constituencies to be reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Goa. However, further action of notification for hearing and objections was not completed. Now the total process has lapsed.
It is pertinent to note that the present state assembly comes to an end on March 15, 2022 and thus the state assembly elections will have to be conducted and the results will have to be declared before the expiry of the aforesaid term.
The leaders of ST community have suggested the constituencies Sanguem, Quepem, Nuvem, and Priol having a sizable population of ST can be reserved for the Scheduled Tribes population.
