MARGAO: The Goa State Scheduled Tribes Action Committee has demanded justice from the Election Commission with the High Court directing the EC to decide the question on reservation of Assembly seats for the Scheduled Tribes as expeditiously as possible and within a period of eight months.
The High Court has passed the order on a petition filed by the Goa State Scheduled Tribes Action Committee praying for reservation of 30 per cent of the seats for the scheduled tribes. Chief Convenor of the Committee Antonio D Gauncar told media on Wednesday that he hoped that the Election Commission would do justice to the Scheduled Tribes.
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High Court’s direction to the Election Commission comes against the backdrop that the representation made by the GSSTAC has been pending with the EC since 2006.
GSSTAC’s plea before the High Court was that the Election Commission and the Union of India have failed to carry out their consequential Constitutional obligation to reflect the chance after the inclusion of several castes as scheduled tribes and to ensure proportional representation to the STs under the provisions of Articles 332, 330 and 342D and other provisions of the Constitution.
Gauncar said the Committee will write to the Election Commission to honour the High Court order and delimitate the constituencies for reservation of 30 per cent of the seats to the STs. “We are ready to assist the EC on the question of delimitation of the constituencies. We have been fighting for justice and the battle will continue till we get what is guaranteed to us by our Constitution,” Gauncar said
Scheduled tribe leader Manuel Barbosa lamented that though the scheduled tribes in Goa were recognized nearly a decade ago, the government has been dilly dally on reservations of seats for the community in the Assembly.
Nuvem Sarpanch Rueben D’Costa said the High Court has given a clear cut ruling to the Election Commission to decide the question of reservation for the scheduled tribes within eight months.
