MARGAO
The United Tribal Alliance Association (UTAA), spearheading the agitation in support of the charter of demands of the tribal communities over the last two decades, has exuded confidence that the ST communities will get political reservations in the 2027 Goa Assembly election.
Addressing the media, UTAA Chief Prakash Velip has said that Union Law Minister has assured the tribal leaders that the Central government would immediately notify the Election Commission of India to decide on the four Assembly seats which would be reserved for the ST communities after Parliament passes the Bill and the Bill receives the assent of the President.
“When the Centre notifies the ECI to reserve the four Assembly seats for the ST communities in the Goa Legislative Assembly, the process should not take more than 4-6 months. Hence, we are confident that the long-pending demand of the ST communities to have political reservations in the Goa Assembly will be finally fulfilled in the 2027 Assembly election”, Prakash said.
He added: “A delegation of UTAA led by me was in Parliament when the Bill to provide reservations for the STs in the Goa Assembly was tabled in Parliament by the Union Law Minister. We thanked the Union Law minister after the bill was piloted in Parliament. He assured us that no sooner becomes a law, the ECI will be notified to take up the work of reserving the four Assembly seats for the ST communities”.
Saying the percentage of the ST population is pegged around 9.9 per cent, he said the ECI will reserve the four Assembly seat by considering the highest number of ST population in the constituencies.
Prakash thanked the BJP government at the Centre and in Goa for fulfilling the long-pending demands of the ST population. He reminded that two young tribal youth Manguesh Gaonkar and Dilip Velip had sacrificed their lives for the cause of the ST communities in the May 25, 2011 Balli agitation.
