PANJIM: The Mission for Political Reservation on Saturday demanded that BJP-led NDA government introduce a bill in Parliament to reserve seats for Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities in Goa and if not to bring an Ordinance so that process is started on immediate basis.
The Mission for Political Reservation also demanded that the opposition parties i.e.India Bloc should put pressure on the ruling dispensation since political reservation was also their agenda too during the recently held Lok Sabha elections.
Mission for Political Reservation President Adv John Fernandes said that the Union government should fulfil the demand of political reservation guaranteed to STcommunities during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. He recalled that on March 7, 2024, the Union Cabinet had given a nod the ‘to Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly constituencies of the State of Goa Bill, 2024.’
He said that BJP leaders in the State celebrated the Union Cabinet decision and declared it as a ‘Modi KI Guarantee’, a promise to the entire ST communities that it will fulfil the promise once the BJP government comes back to power at Centre. Therefore, the government should fulfil this promise by introducing the necessary law in Parliament or by introducing an Ordinance o that the process to reserve the seats for STs in Goa under Articles 330 and 332, can be started.
Adv Fernandes cautioned that the Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Bill, 2024, if introduced, would supersede all the previously published figures by Registrar General of India, Census Commissioner etc. He claimed that the population figures published by Registrar General of India through Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on October 31, 2013 be accepted.
He warned that if these figures were superseded, then the Election Commission or the Delimitation Commission would require to restart the process from zero. This will further delay as the procedure involved was lengthy and because of which the Scheduled Tribes of Goa might not even get the reservation in the Assembly elections due in 2027. He reiterated his demand to drop the said provision.