MARGAO
A delegation of 'Mission Political Reservation for Scheduled Tribes of Goa' called on Chief Minister Pramod Sawant along with Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, MLAs Ganesh Gaonkar and Antonio Vas, local elected representatives of ST organisations and prominent members of ST communities from all over Goa on Monday to demand reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes of Goa in the House of the people and Legislative Assembly.
Around 80 ST leaders from the Scheduled Tribe community from all over Goa were present for the meeting. They demanded reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes of Goa in the existing 40 Assembly seats and two Lok Sabha seats as per Articles 330 and 332 of the Constitution considering the population of STs in Goa based on the 2011 census.
The spokesperson Govind Shirodkar explained that the Scheduled Tribe communities of Goa have been deprived of the constitutional right of political reservation for the last 20 years.
The delegation further told the Sawant that during the study visit of the Parliamentary Committee for the welfare of SC/ST, its chairman Dr Kirit Premjibai Solanki on Jan 19, 2023, had given directions to the Goa government to submit a proposal to the Union government to reserve seats for Scheduled Tribes in the Goa Assembly.
Based on the instructions of Dr Solanki, Director of Tribal Welfare Dashrat Redkar has already moved a proposal in this regard and is pending Sawant's approval, they said.
The said proposal has proposed to reserve four seats for the scheduled Tribe Community in the Assembly by constituting a delimitation commission for Goa.
Since the Chief Minister holds the portfolio of Tribal Welfare, all the Scheduled Tribe leaders again urged Sawant by meeting him personally to clear the file and submit the proposal for the reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes in the State Assembly, to the Ministry of law and justice, Home Ministry and Director Tribal Affairs, the government of India at the earliest so that the notification can be issued to reserve seats for ST in Goa Assembly before 2024 Parliamentary election.
The Chief Minister later assured the leaders that he will do the needful at the earliest and give justice to the Tribal Community of Goa.
