Margao: Dejected by the legal hurdles to political reservation, members of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) have begun holding meetings in ST-dominated villages across Goa to mobilise support. The meetings are meant to plan their next moves before the assembly elections.The community’s disappointment follows Bombay High Court’s interim order restraining the census commissioner of India from notifying the estimated ST population in the state. The notification was a key step towards reserving assembly seats for the community.The division bench had been hearing a petition challenging the Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Act, 2025. It noted that the census commissioner had himself conceded that available data did not permit an estimate of the ST population, yet presumed its share to be 9.9%.“There is an intense feeling in the ST community that the government has done us an injustice,” John Fernandes of Mission Political Reservation, one of the petitioners in the case, told TOI. He said the core committee of the organisation has decided to go from village to village to mobilise opinion against govt.Fernandes said govt’s handling of the case showed it was not serious about ST reservation. “Most of the respondents either failed to appear before the court, did not file their replies or affidavits, or did not place the facts of the case before it,” he said.He also referred to a meeting held by chief minister Pramod Sawant on Friday to discuss the fallout of the high court order. “We exposed govt’s designs at that meeting. It has misguided us every time and tried to do so again, but this time we saw through its plans,” he said.Warning of political consequences, Fernandes said: “If we could bring this govt to office in 2012 over the ST issue, remember that we can overthrow it in the forthcoming polls.”Sawant has said his govt remains committed to securing reservation for the community. He has said the state would urge the Centre to approach Supreme Court to protect the interests of the ST community.
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