PANJIM: The Opposition led by Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao on Tuesday met Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai and urged him to intervene and ask the State government to take proactive measures to curb communal disharmony in the State.
The Opposition members alleged that situation was going from bad to worse. The government should take measures to maintain peace and age-old religious amity existing in the State.
They also submitted a memorandum to the Governor demanding to conduct Census in the State,
After meeting the Governor at Raj Bhavan, they said, “Governor gave us a patient hearing and said that he will write to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant with regards to the memorandum submitted to him.”
The delegation also urged the Governor to instruct the government to take up caste survey similar to the one taken up by the Bihar government especially with reference to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) population.
He said, “Injustice is being meted out to those who belong to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. The government has not taken any action on the representation submitted by people belonging to the STs.”
“We were assured that a delegation will visit Delhi but the response from there was negative. Now ST communities have threatened that they will boycott Lok Sabha elections. We demand that a Census conducted in 2012, can be used and implemented. The government is not serious but playing with the sentiments of the people belonging to the ST communities,” Alemao said.
He claimed that all Opposition MLAs were united on the issue of Census and communal harmony. “We are united. I am here not to comment on other political parties,” he said.
AAP MLA Venzy Viegas, RGP MLA Biresh Borkar, Goa Congress president Amit Patkar and AAP State president Amit Palekar, among others, were part of the delegation.
