MARGAO: The Mission Political Reservation for Scheduled Tribes (MPRST) of Goa has decided to march to the Goa Legislative Assembly on February 5 to press for their demand to reserve seats in Assembly for the community.
“Scheduled Tribes of Goa will March to the Goa Assembly on February 5 with their demand to reserve seats in Goa Assembly for the STs of Goa,” said Adv John Fernandes, MPRST President.
It may be recalled that on July 21, 2023, during the last assembly session, MLA Ganesh Gaonkar had tabled a private member’s resolution for reserving seats for STs in the Goa Assembly, which was adopted unanimously. Further, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had assured the House that he will take an all-party delegation to the Centre.
“However even after six months from the day of adopting the said unanimous resolution, the Goa government has failed to take any positive steps to fulfil the same. The ‘Assurance Committee’ of the House is also sitting over the said resolution. Therefore, on December 30, 2023, this ‘Mission’ had given an ultimatum to the Assembly Speaker to get this resolution implemented or else the ST community would march to his house. Despite the said ultimatum, neither the Speaker nor the Goa Government paid any attention to this demand,” Fernandes added.
“It appears that tabling of a private member’s resolution through MLA Ganesh Gaonkar and later supporting it unanimously by all the remaining MLAs was only propaganda of this government which is taking the entire ST community for granted and hurting their sentiments,” said Fernandes.
“Therefore, as a strong reaction to above and in view of the ultimatum given to the Assembly Speaker, the STs from all over Goa will peacefully march to the Goa Assembly to open the doors of Goa Assembly as enshrined to them under Article 332 of the Constitution of India. We are looking forward to the Speaker and remaining 39 MLAs to give a warm welcome to the ST community of Goa,” said Fernandes.
