PANAJI: The Bill seeking political reservation to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community in the Goa Assembly is likely to come up for discussion and passing during the ongoing Parliament session.
The Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Bill, 2024, was introduced during the last session of the Lok Sabha by the Union Ministry for Law and Justice.
The Bill is listed as one among the 16 bills which are likely to be taken up before the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for discussion and subsequent passing.
At present, the Goa Assembly has 40 seats with no reservation to ST. The number of seats to be reserved will be based on the ST population in the State.
According to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, three to four seats could be reserved for STs based on the population.
"It is imperative to enact a law to provide for enabling provisions empowering the Election Commission to make amendments in Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Order, 2008 and readjust seats in Legislative Assembly of the State of Goa for STs," the Bill stated.
Since the exercise of delimitation was initiated in 2002, the population of STs in the State of Goa was recorded at that time in the census figures of 2001 as only 566, whereas the total population of the State of Goa was more than 13 lakh, the Bill added.
