Team Goemkarponn
CANACONA: A meeting of representatives from various castes, communities and religions in Canacona has called for the implementation of political reservation for the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community in Goa to be deferred until the completion of the Census and the subsequent delimitation process.
The meeting, convened to deliberate on the government’s proposal to extend political reservation to the ST community before the 2027 Assembly elections, passed three unanimous resolutions after discussions by several speakers. Former Canacona MLA Vijay Poi Khot and a number of local leaders were among those present.
One of the resolutions stated that the Goa government’s decision to provide political reservation to the ST community should be kept in abeyance until the completion of the Census and the subsequent delimitation exercise. It further stated that after these processes are completed, the government may consider caste-based political reservation only after consultations with all political parties and with the concurrence of voters belonging to other communities and castes.
The gathering also passed a resolution seeking what it described as the correction of an injustice to the people of Pernem over the past 45 years by implementing Scheduled Caste (SC) reservation for the Pernem Assembly constituency on a rotational basis.
The meeting was attended by several prominent local figures, including former Canacona Municipal Council Chairperson Rajendra Dessai, former Loliem-Polem Sarpanch Shailesh Pagui, and other community representatives, who expressed concerns over implementing political reservation based on what they said were two-decade-old Census figures.
