MARGAO
He, however, made it clear that the Delimitation Commission has to be notified by the central government in this regard. Parsekar said it is the Delimitation Commission which takes cognisance of this demand and has the authority to decide on this issue. “The Delimitation Commission has to be notified by the central government once in about 20 years. The last Delimitation Commission was dissolved in 2005. The next Commission will not be notified before the 2020,” he told the gathering. He, however, provided a ray hope, stating that there are three to four such States in the country which have been successful in pursuing their demands. Parsekar also told the audience that the State government, on its part, has provided reservations for STs in Panchayats, Zilla Parishads and Municipalities. He, howevre, did not respond to the second demand of declaration of scheduled areas in the State. A resolution featuring these two demands was moved by the BJP ST Morcha which was unanimously passed by a show of hands at the meet. Earlier in his address, the Chief Minister narrated the welfare measures constituted by the BJP government exclusively for the welfare of ST community. “Of the 24 schemes for the STs, 12 are focussed solely on education,” he said, while urging the STs to accord importance to education. In his address, South Goa MP Narendra Sawaiker, informed the gathering that he raised the demand for political reservations of STs with the Union Minister for Tribal welfare Jual Oram. “Oram has promised all co-operation in this regard and is looking forward to meet a delegation of the State STs,” Sawaiker told the gathering. Others who addressed the gathering included Minister for Tribal Welfare Ramesh Tawadkar, Social Welfare Minister Mahadev Naik, Sanguem MLA Subhash Phal Desai, Sanvordem MLA Ganesh Gaonkar and State BJP vice-president Prakash Velip.
