PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday assured the Goa legislative Assembly that political reservations for Scheduled Tribes in the House will be done before the next general election due in 2027.
Sawant, who was responding to a calling attention motion moved by the entire seven-member Opposition comprising the Congress, AAP, GFP and RGP, also said, he will lead a government delegation to meet Central leaders over the ST reservation issue on February 16.
Sawant also told the House that the State government has formally written to Union Minister Arjun Meghwal on February 7 regarding the setting up of the delimitation commission.
Meanwhile, leaders of the 'Mission Political Reservation for Scheduled Tribes of Goa' which has been championing the cause for over a year now, told the media outside the House that they will wait till February 16 for the government to set up the delimitation commission for identifying the assembly segments to be reserved for their community.
The strength of the ST population in Goa has been pegged at about 10.23% in the 2011 census and by the proportionate principle of reservation the community is Constitutionally required to have a quota of four seats in the 40-member Goa legislative Assembly.
The conglomerate of ST leaders has been demanding this reservation be formalised before the next assembly elections which are due in 2027 for which they say that the notification for setting up the delimitation commission needs to be issued before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections due in April-May this year.
