MARGAO
The Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has come out in strong support of Political reservations for the Scheduled Tribes of Goa in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
In fact, Chairman of the Panel Prof Kirti Premjibai Solanki has expressed utter shock and surprise the ST community in Goa does not enjoy political reservations, reminding that political reservation for the ST and SC communities is a Constitutional Mandate which cannot be denied to the communities.
“It is indeed sad that the benefit of political reservations enriched in the Constitution has not been given to the ST communities in Goa till date. The ST communities have to get the political reservations. It is a Constitutional mandate”, Prof. Kirit told the media during an interaction at the Raia village Panchayat during the Panel’s visit on Thursday evening.
When the media drew attention of Prof. Kirti that the STs in Goa have been waiting for the political
reservations for the last 20 years, he said this is the first time that the issue has been brought to the
notice of the Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
“Since this is the first time that the denial of political reservations have been brought to our notice, the panel would take find out the reasons behind the delay. Goa was earlier ruled by the Portuguese. I do not know why the ST communities have still not got the benefit of political reservations”, he said.
He added: “This is a Constitutional mandate which cannot be denied to the ST Communities. I cannot say how many Assembly seats need to be reserved for the ST Communities since the reservation is based on the percentage of population”.
Comprising of 30 members, the Parliamentary Committee on the welfare of Scheduled Tribes and Castes are on a three-day visit to Goa, from January 11.
“We have visited a couple of public sector organizations on the first day of our visit. Today, we have discussed with the state government on various issued on the upliftment of these communities and their development, pertaining to their constitutional rights, implementation of reservation, roaster, filling up of vacant and backlog of psots”, he said, adding that the panel will also interact with employees belonging to the two communities.
