CM assures to pursue ST quota for assembly seats
A protest held on Monday by members of scheduled tribe communities caused massive traffic congestion in the city, but the agitation exacted an assurance from Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who promised to pursue with the Centre issuance of a notification to constitute a delimitation commission for reserving four seats for STs in the state legislative assembly, before the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll schedule.
The Mission Political Reservation for Scheduled Tribes of Goa, which held the protest, took back the stir after the Chief Minister made the assurance on the reservation of assembly seats.
The tribal organisation intensified its agitation in the state capital as initially there was no response from the government, which enraged protestors.
The agitators, who were stopped at the Merces junction till Monday afternoon, started marching towards the assembly complex.
But the police stopped them at the old Mandovi bridge, which caused massive traffic congestion in the city and its surrounding areas for nearly three hours.
The protestors led by association president John Fernandes, its spokesperson Govind Shirodkar and others demanded that the Chief Minister should meet them and speak to them on their demand.
The agitators became furious when the Chief Minister told the state legislative assembly that he would reply to the calling attention moved by the Opposition demanding political reservation for the STs.
Later, Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai visited the protesters. He led a 16-member delegation to the Chief Minister in the assembly complex to discuss the matter.
Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude, Opposition leader Yuri Alemao, MLAs Ganesh Gaonkar, Sardesai, Altone D’Costa, Venzy Viegas, Cruz Silva and Viresh Borkar were also present along with the delegation during the discussions.
Fernandes said the Chief Minister told them that he will make a formal announcement on Saturday, and not on Wednesday, while answering the calling attention on the floor of the House.
The Chief Minister said that he will find out the present status of the file for notifying a delimitation commission and accordingly inform the House on Saturday.
“The file has been pending before the Union ministry of tribal welfare. It has gone to the Registrar General of India. After obtaining an approval from the home ministry, a delimitation commission has to be notified,” he explained.
Sawant added that he spoke to officials in the home ministry two days back on the notification to be issued.
“My efforts are on to get it done. There has been a procedural delay…,” the Chief Minister said.
