Panaji

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Saturday said the process of issuing the final notification for reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the state assembly will be completed within a month.

The Union government on Thursday notified the Act that grants political reservation for the ST community in the 40-member Goa House. This operationalisation of the Act, passed earlier by Parliament, means four seats for tribal candidates will be reserved in the state assembly for the first time.

Sawant said the process has 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," the chief minister told reporters.

He said a Census Commissioner would be appointed as part of the process and the percentage of ST population in each assembly constituency would be determined based on the latest census data.

Sawant said there was no need for confusion over the process, asserting that the government was committed to implementing the reservation.

He said some quarters are unnecessarily trying to create confusion.

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The Union Law Ministry's move to notify provisions enabling the reservation of seats for Scheduled Tribes in the Goa assembly has paved the way for the long-pending demand for political reservation for the coastal state's tribal population.

The reservation process involves determining the number and location of constituencies to be reserved based on the ST population in Goa, which goes to polls next year.