PANJIM: The United Tribals Association Alliance (UTAA) on Tuesday met Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and submitted a memorandum with demands that they want to be taken up and discussed in the forthcoming legislative assembly session.
Led by UTAA President Prakash Velip, members of the association highlighted issues including reservation of assembly constituencies for the Scheduled Tribes, the budgetary provisions made to be utilized only by the community, implementation of the Tribal Forest Act and filling of backlog vacancies in government jobs.
In the memorandum, the association said that since the tribal community had got its status in 2003, no constituency had been reserved for them.
“We were not included in the census of 2001 under the ST community and hence had no reservations for the elections in 2002. There was no reservation for the ones in 2007 or 2012. There is still a lot of time for the 2017 elections, but it is found that no steps have been taken for reservation for this election too,” said Velip.
The association also asked the government to declare scheduled areas for development of ST people under the tribal sub plan. Also under the plan, 12 per cent of funds are to be allocated to the community, another aspect that isn’t being followed, they pointed out.
“As per the Tribal Forest Act, the tribal people are the deemed owners of the land where they dwell. But at present the forest department is harassing the tribal people and it is becomes difficult for them to live. Speedy implementation of Tribal Forest Act will help. More than 12,000 applications are pending at the collectorate and other levels,” he said.
Setting up of a planning authority for ST, he said would help decide and plan developmental work.
In a similar manner, the Republican Party of India took up issues facing the Scheduled Caste community in the State. “The government of Goa has failed to keep up the level of social, educational and financial development of the community. They’ve suffered a major setback by reducing reservation from 15 per cent to 2 per cent and not providing any reservation for SC in the municipal, panchayat and zilla panchayat elections,” said party general secretary Satish Korgaonkar.
Among a list of demands submitted, the party has asked for increase in reservation of SC from 2 percent to 7 percent, clearing of back cases, proper utilization of funds earmarked for the community and the appointing of an SC candidate as chairman to the Scheduled Caste Corporation.
