MARGAO
The Scheduled Tribes (STs) of Goa have launched a statewide awareness campaign from Cola in Quepem, protesting the delay in completing the statutory process for reserving four Assembly constituencies for STs in the 2027 Goa Assembly elections.
At the meeting, ST leaders questioned whether the community would again be denied political reservation in the forthcoming polls.
Convenor Rupesh Velip said the community was concerned over the lack of visible progress since the political reservation Act came into force last year. He said STs had been pursuing political reservation for decades and had demanded final notification before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “We had conducted more than 130 awareness meetings across Goa before the 2024 parliamentary elections on our constitutional rights and how we had been cheated. People revolted and the BJP government lost its South Goa MP seat,” he said.
Velip said the community feared that delaying the process until the last moment could once again deny it constitutional representation.
He also sought accountability over the government’s expenditure of Rs 33.37 crore on major tribal programmes, questioning how the funds were spent and how much directly benefited tribal families and communities.
Activist Rama Kankonkar questioned why 10.23% of the State’s annual budget was not being allocated for tribal development in proportion to the ST population. He claimed that 90% of the entitled funds had remained unutilised for decades, resulting in injustice and depriving the community of equitable development.
Journalist Soiru Velip and Dr Satyavan Gaonkar also addressed the gathering, stressing the need for greater awareness and collective action on pending ST issues.
Velip said the Cola meeting marked the beginning of a renewed statewide campaign covering ST-dominated villages and panchayats. The campaign will focus on political reservation, tribal development funds, Forest Rights, employment backlog and land rights.
