Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is scheduled to table ‘The Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Bill 2024’ for enabling reservation of seats in accordance with Article 332 of the Constitution. The readjustment is necessitated by inclusion of certain communities in the list of STs in the state of Goa, the Bill said.
New Delhi: The number of Scheduled Tribes population in Goa is five times higher than that of Scheduled Castes but no seat reserved for them in the State Assembly, while the Schedule Caste have one reserve in the state Legislative Assemble. No seats were earmarked for STs in Goa during the 2002 delimitation exercise based on the 2001 Census. The central government is all set to introduce the bill on monday.
However, through a central legislation in 2003, the Bill said, three new communities – Kunbi, Gawda and Velip were included in the List of Scheduled Tribes of Goa, which “increased the number” of Scheduled Tribes population in Goa “considerably”.
A peculiar situation has arisen in the state, wherein the population of the Scheduled Tribes in the state vis-à-vis the population of Scheduled Castes is considerably highe compared to Schedule Caste but no seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes as they are unable to available to avail the constitutional benefit of reservation afforded to them by article 332”, the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill said.
According to the 2011 Census, Goa’s total population was 14.58 lakh, which included 25,449 SCs and 1,49,275 STs. The Pernem Assembly seat is reserved for SCs.
A Bill needs to be passed in the Parliament for this purpose as there is no provision in the Representation of the People Act, 1950 or in the Representation of the People Act, 1951, or in the Delimitation Act, 2002, enabling the Election Commission to carry out further delimitation of constituencies or to determine constituencies for the SCs and STs in states and UTs where delimitation was carried out under the 2002 Act.