PANAJI
The United Tribal Associations Alliance (UTAA) has toned down its proposed August 13 "Chalo Panaji" agitation, announcing that the event will now be held as a tribal convention (melava) instead of a protest, while continuing to press the government to expedite the implementation of political reservation for Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Goa.
A delegation of tribal leaders, including Priol MLA Govind Gaude, met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday and urged him to accelerate the implementation process, citing concerns over the limited time available before the 2027 Assembly elections.
"We have asked the Chief Minister to aggressively move forward with the implementation process. We also followed up on the progress made so far. Our August 13 programme will go ahead as planned," Gaude said after the meeting.
UTAA president Prakash Velip, who was also part of the meeting, said the alliance had decided against holding a protest as the process for implementing ST political reservation has already commenced.
"The August 13 programme will be a melava and not a protest. The implementation process has started and therefore there is no question of staging a protest. We have decided to hold a convention to discuss other tribal issues while also urging the government to speed up the reservation process," Velip said.
Expressing confidence that the exercise would be completed before the next Assembly elections, Velip asserted that political reservation for Scheduled Tribes would be in place by 2027, with four Assembly constituencies expected to be reserved for ST candidates.
The announcement came a days after the State government formally initiated the implementation process by bringing into force the Goa Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies Act, 2025, paving the way for reservation of Assembly seats for Scheduled Tribes.
