The Centre introduced a bill to reserve seats for the Scheduled Tribes (ST) community in the Goa Assembly.The ST community has been demanding that four out of the 40 seats in the Assembly be reserved for them. The Cabinet had passed the draft legislation in March.
The bill states that the population of the Scheduled Tribes has increased considerably in Goa as per the 2011 census in comparison to 2001 census figures.
Election Commission did not have the power to determine the number of seats for SCs and STs in any state before the next census, and so the bill was brought in to provide the reservation for the increasing ST population.
As per the Bill, the EC will first amend the Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Order, 2008, to make way for the reservation.