Informs Centre has introduced a bill in this regard
TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: There’s finally a ray of hope that scheduled tribes will get due reservation of seats in the Goa Legislative Assembly, even as the exact number will depend on the figures compiled by Census of India 2011.
The Union government has introduced a bill titled Re-adjustment of Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Bill, 2013. The Rajya Sabha has sent it to the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievance, Law, Order and Justice for examination and to report back to Parliament.
Chairman of the Committee, MP Shantaram Naik told the media on Monday that the Bill seeks to include the STs/SCs which have been included in the delimitation order as per census figures of 2001 up to May 2012.
Naik said the Union government has introduced the Bill based on directions from the Supreme Court to enact a law to include the STs/SCs in the delimitation order. “In Goa, the three ST communities of Velips, Kunbis and Gawdas were excluded from reservation to the Goa Assembly. The Parliamentary Committee has been directed to examine the matter. We are meeting in Delhi for two days on April 4-5,” he informed.
Replying to a question, he said when the Delimitation Commission came to Goa in 2003-04, the Congress party had called for a special census to include these three Goan communities to make them eligible for the Assembly seat reservation as per their percentage. Sadly, the Commission took the plea that they have no power to do so,” he lamented, adding “though the STs have been fighting for reservation in the Assembly, their plea did not find favour with the Commission.”
Replying to another question, Naik said that since the percentage of ST community in Goa is pegged at around 12 per cent, it may be eligible for five seats. He, however, said that the exact percentage of seats for reservation for the ST community will be based on the Census figures for the year 2011.
