PANJIM: The ‘Mission Political Reservation for Scheduled Tribes of Goa’ on Monday demanded that the Centre should reserve Assembly seats for ST communities by issuing an Ordinance and constituting a Delimitation Commission for the State.
Addressing a press conference at Panjim, Mission Political Reservation for Scheduled Tribes of Goa secretary Rupesh Velip said, “The seats in Goa Assembly for STs can be reserved with a simple decision of the Central government with an Ordinance allowing constitution of Delimitation Commission for Goa. It looks like the double engine government have no political will to do it. Or there is no coordination between both the engines. If both – Goa and Central governments fail to act on this before forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and give justice to the ST community of Goa, we shall be constrained to do State-wide agitation and boycott 2024 Lok Sabha polls.”
The Mission’s spokesman Govind Shirodkar pointed out that the Ministry of Law and Justice vide notification dated March 6, 2020, had given political reservation to Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland by constituting Delimitation Commission for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies.
“For these States, the Ministry of Law and Justice did not wait for the Census figure after 2026 for constituting Delimitation Commission for the purpose of delimitation, then why there should be injustice on Goa? Why there is hostile discrimination between Scheduled Tribes of Goa and that of Scheduled Tribes of Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland etc?”, Shirodkar asked.
He further said that despite having constitutional obligation under Article 330 and Article 332, political reservation has not been given to STs of Goa since Liberation. “Hence, we are asking for reservation from 40 Assembly constituencies, which has not been implemented till date and this is the constitutional right enshrined to the STs of Goa under the Constitution of Goa. We are not asking for readjustment of seats as provided under Article 82 of Constitution, but we are demanding for reservation of seats under Article 330 and 332. The Ministry of Law and Justice has miserably failed to understand the difference between two,” he stated.
Former CEC says ST reservation only possible from 2032
PANJIM: Former State Election Commissioner (SEC) Prof Prabhakar Timble has said that political reservation for Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities in the Goa Assembly would in all probability be effective from 2032 State Assembly elections and that neither the State or the Central government can hasten it before nor put it in abeyance beyond this year.
Prof Timble said that the reservation for ST communities in the State Assemblies is governed by the provisions of Article 332 of the Indian Constitution. “The political reservation in State Assemblies is to be decided rationally by the Delimitation Commission, an independent constitutional body and which has similar powers like that of the Election Commission of India (ECI). The Delimitation Commission has to arrive at the number of reserved seats in the State Assemblies and also identify the constituencies which would be reserved for STs,” he added.
According to Prof Timble, the State government has no power to make provision for political reservation in the State Assembly. Any resolutions passed by the State Assembly will have no bearing on the process and outcome of political reservation of seats for ST. Resolutions are mere statements of sentiments of the Members of the House. The State government can do all other things to bring the community into the mainstream and empower the community through education, skill development and employment.
“As far as reservation and representation in the apex legislature of the State is concerned, nothing can be done by the State government or the Central government including both the House of Parliament,” he said.
