PANAJI
The Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said that the Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured to resolve the issue of reserving seats to Scheduled Tribe (ST) population in the Goa Legislative Assembly.
Sawant, who is currently in Delhi, held a meeting with Shah requesting him to expedite the matter of reservation of seats in Goa Legislative Assembly for ST population.
"Home Minister has assured to resolve the matter," Sawant said.
The Chief Minister further informed that the delegation of ST community could not be part of the meeting owing to last minute exigency.
He however, said the home minister would meet them on next occasion.
The Goa delegation led by the chief minister had on Friday met Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjuna Munda demanding constitution of Delimitation Commission for reserving Assembly seats for scheduled tribes in the State.
The delegation included Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, Tribal Minister Govind Gaude and ST leaders including former Minister Prakash Velip.
“Submitted a memorandum demanding the Constitution of Delimitation Commission for determining the seats to be reserved for ST in the Goa Legislative Assembly,” the CMO said.
During the recently concluded Budget Session, the Chief Minister had assured to give political reservation to the ST community in the 2027elections. He said that based on 2011 census, STs could get three to four seats reserved.
Last year, the Centre had declined Goa’s proposal to grant political reservation to STs in 2027 Assembly polls stating that the next delimitation exercise and the readjustment of seats, would be done after the new Delimitation Commission is constituted based on the census taken after 2026.
