MARGAO, FEB 19
The Goa State Scheduled Tribes Action Committee has knocked the doors of the Election Commission, New Delhi to reserve seats in the Goa Assembly for the Scheduled Tribes on the basis of their percentage of total population.
In a letter to the Election Commissioner, Committee Chief Convenor Antonio Gauncar drew attention to the denial of reservations for the Scheduled Tribes in Goa under Article 332 (3) of the Constitution of India.
He further pointed out that the percentage of Scheduled Tribes is wrongly assessed without taking the cut off date of February 19, 1968 into account, adding that though the government has finally agreed to resurvey the ST population, the matter is delayed under one pretext or the other.
Requesting the government to implement Article 332 (3) of the Constitution atleast with the existing percentage of ST Population, which is fixed at 12 per cent, Gauncar lamented that only in Goa the ST people are denied the Constitutional rights deliberately.
