MARGAO: As it happens in the months leading to elections, promises are made aplenty and justifications are made by political parties as to why they can help the ST community and fulfil their demands.
This has been the situation every election and yet in South Goa, a place where there have been multiple agitations, including the infamous Balli riots, where two youth lost their lives, the community doesn’t wish to be used just for elections.
Last month, the BJP held a BJP ST convention where top State brass, including Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar waxed eloquent about how the government will ‘solidly’ stand behind their community’s demands and listed out the various schemes and initiatives taken up by the government.
A few weeks later, AAP held a massive meeting in Quepem, the heartland of the ST community and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hit out against the BJP government for the state of affairs and atrocities against Dalits, tribals etc.
However, nothing much has changed on the ground for these locals and despite the “efforts being taken by the government.”
There is so much more needs to be done to truly uplift the conditions of the ST community. The ST members feel that they are only offered schemes and not their rights.
There are also concerns about how United Tribals Associations Alliance (UTAA) that was leading the agitation, which now aligned with the BJP with their leader Prakash Velip joining the party.
“I would say that the Scheduled Tribe members of Goa are at cross roads. ST people are looked at only as a vote bank. There were 12 demands raised during the agitation. Tribal leaders who were leading the agitation pressing for the fulfilment of the 12 demands have betrayed the tribals of Goa. Prakash Shankar Velip is one (such betrayer),” said Ravindra Velip, a Cavrem local who has been at the forefront of agitations for the ST community in his village.
ST locals raised concerns how Reservations rules and SC guidelines are being bypassed in Government recruitment and also while reserving seats in the Education.
“I can say very few of the demands are fulfilled such as Independent Tribal Welfare Department, an ST Commission etc or I can say only three of them are fulfilled. Whenever ST people stand united and fight for the cause, the government uses divide and rule policy to weaken the movement All the tribal leaders who were leading the agitation are running after political parties for ticket to contest elections which compromises the genuine issues of tribals. Tribal Affairs Minister Ramesh Tawadkar could have done lot, but he failed miserably,” added Ravindra.
ST locals from Quepem, Sanguem and Canacona feel that they are becoming poorer and in addition their land is also being taken away. They lament that there is no voice of tribals of Goa in policy making.
Parsekar boasts that 12 of the 24 schemes initiated by the government for the tribals are for education. But the tribals lament the poor quality of education and infrastructure.
They demand that there should be revitalisation of government schools in tribal belt and for generation of job opportunities for qualified tribal youth.
Further, they feel that the health department has let them down as the ST people are solely dependent on the only two major Govt hospitals – Hospicio Hospital at Margao and Goa Medical College at GMC with no hospitals in tribal belts or smaller clinics.
