Goemkarponn desk
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a bill to provide reservations to Scheduled Tribes in the Goa Legislative Assembly.
Briefing reporters on the decisions taken by the Cabinet, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said the ST community have no seats reserved in the Goa assembly.
Amid demands from the community, the Cabinet approved the ‘Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes Bill, 2024, which will empower the census commissioner to notify the population of STs in Goa.
Based on it, the Election Commission will amend the Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Order, 2008, to make way for ST reservation in the 40-member Goa Assembly.
An official statement later said that by amending the order, EC will carry out the readjustment of constituencies in the Legislative Assembly.
“The Election Commission shall take into consideration the revised population figures of the Scheduled Tribes and readjust the Legislative Assembly constituency having regard to the provisions of Articles 170 and 332 of the Constitution and Section 8 of the Delimitation Act, 2002,” the statement said.
The bill can now be brought in the next Lok Sabha to be formed after the upcoming general elections.
As of now, no seat in the 40-member Goa assembly is reserved for the ST community while one seat is reserved for the Scheduled Castes. The ST community has been demanding that four out of the 40 seats in the Goa assembly be reserved for them.
Recently, Gao Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the assembly that reservation for STs in the House would be a reality by 2027 polls.
It is estimated that Goa has an ST population of 1.5 lakh, Goyal said.
