Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji

Panaji, Aug 9: The process of reserving seats for Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the Goa Assembly will be completed within a month, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Saturday after the Union government notified the law enabling political reservation for the community.

The notification operationalises the Act passed earlier by Parliament and clears the way for four seats to be reserved for tribal candidates in the 40-member Assembly for the first time.

The move also advances the long-pending demand for political reservation for Goa's tribal population ahead of the state Assembly elections next year.

Sawant said the process had moved forward following the notification issued by the Union Law Ministry.

"The process of final notification (by the Election Commission of India) will be completed in the next one month," he told reporters.

He said a Census Commissioner would be appointed as part of the exercise and the percentage of the Scheduled Tribe population in each Assembly constituency would be worked out based on the latest census data.

The chief minister said there was no need for confusion over the process and asserted that the government was committed to implementing the reservation. He also alleged that some quarters were unnecessarily trying to create confusion.

The reservation process involves deciding the number and location of constituencies to be reserved based on the Scheduled Tribe population in Goa.

With the Union government's notification, the final steps have now been set in motion to reserve four Assembly seats for Scheduled Tribes in the state.