Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Goa Forward President Vijai Sardesai along with General Secretary Durgadas Kamat today Villagers of Khandepar and assured his support to their cause.
The Khandepar villagers at Azad Maidan are protesting against the Bhandara Work at Khandepar and demanding to revoke of Sec 144 imposed there.
“Goa Forward will stand with the Villagers of Khandepar in this fight. Development has to be with consent,” said GFP Chief Vijai Sardesai.
He further said that the state government is fooling the ST community be it the Bandara issue of the ST Political Reservation issue.
Vijai said that in the year 2003, three communities, namely Gawda, Kunbi and Velip, were added to the existing list of Scheduled Tribes of Goa, increasing the population of Scheduled tribes considerably, with the total tally of Scheduled Tribe communities in Goa reaching 8 per cent.
“As per the 20th census, the population of Scheduled Tribes in Goa is 10.23 per cent. However, even after 20 years, they are deprived of political reservation both in the House of the People and the Legislative Assembly of the State,” he further said.
Sardesai has demanded to constitute the Delimitation Commission for the purpose of delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in the state of Goa.
