PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who led a delegation to Delhi to pursue the demand for a quota of seats in the Goa legislative assembly for Scheduled Tribes, has said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has assured of an "early resolution" of the issue.
Apart from Sawant, the delegation comprised of Rajya Sabha MP Sadanand Shet Tanavade, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude and MLAs Antonio Vas and Ganesh Gaonkar besides leaders of the ST community. The delegation met Shah on Friday evening.
The ST community under the banner of 'Mission Political Reservation' had stepped up a public agitation to realise its demand for the quota of seats in the Assembly over the last more than a year. Their demand is for the quota, a constitutional guarantee, to be in place before the next general elections are due in Goa which is in 2027.
The ST communities in Goa roughly account for up to 12 per cent of the population and are constitutionally guaranteed a proportionate quota of four seats in the Goa legislative assembly. To decide which seats these will be, requires a Delimitation Commission which in due course is to be set up not before 2026.
With the agitation to demand the quota before the 2027 assembly elections gaining steam, the State government is trying to convince the Centre to consider it a special case and speed up the process. The meeting with Shah on Thursday was an effort in that direction.
