PANAJI
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a bill to provide reservations to Scheduled Tribes in the Goa Legislative Assembly.
Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal made the announcement that the Cabinet has approved ''Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes Bill, 2024”.
Goyal said, as per the proposal approved by the Cabinet, the Census Commission will be required to notify the Scheduled Tribe population of Goa and subsequently the Election Commission will have to do the reservation of seats for the STs based on the notified data.
According to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, as per the Census 2011, the population of Scheduled Tribes communities is 1,49,275, which is 10.23 per cent and they get reservations in elections at village panchayats, municipal councils, and Zilla Panchayats but not in Legislative Assembly elections.
The bill could now be brought in the next Lok Sabha to be formed after the upcoming general elections.
On Wednesday, the scheduled tribe leaders under the banner ‘Mission Political Reservation for Scheduled Tribes had started their chain hunger strike demanding immediate notification to reserve four Assembly constituencies -- Sanguem, Priol, Quepem and Nuvem for the community candidate.
The leaders, led by Rupesh Velip, held a sit-in chain hunger strike at Azad Maidan pressing for their demand. They had expressed complete displeasure at the manner in which the State and Central leadership were handling the reservation issue.
