New Delhi
Amid continued protests by the Opposition demanding a discussion on the ongoing revision of Bihar electoral rolls, the Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a legislation to provide reservation to Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the Goa assembly.
There is no seat in the 40-member Goa assembly that is reserved for the ST community even as one seat is reserved for Scheduled Castes, whose population is almost 1/6th of that of the tribal community in the coastal State.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal moved ‘The Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Bill, 2025’ for consideration and passage even as the Opposition’s protests continued unabated in the House. The Bill was passed by a voice vote.
Incidentally, this is the first Bill to be passed by the Lok Sabha in the ongoing Monsoon session which has seen disruptions by the Opposition on various issues, including the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
The Bill, which was first introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2024 and had been pending since then, states that the population of the Scheduled Tribes has increased considerably in Goa as per the 2011 census vis-a-vis 2001 census figures.
A “peculiar situation” has arisen in the State, wherein the population of the STs there vis-a-vis the population of SCs is considerably higher — as per the Primary Census Abstract, 2011 for Goa. The total population was 14,58,545; the population of SCs was 25,449 and the population of STs was 1,49,275.
“But no seats are reserved for the STs and they are unable to avail the constitutional benefit of reservation,” the legislation maintained.
