MARGAO: The Goa ST, SC and OBCs Federation has requested the government to assign reservations for ST in the Assembly, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha election before celebrating golden jubilee of Liberation of Goa.

It also wanted the allotment of plots for housing schemes. The federation was also critical that though survey of ST population was done many times, the government did not have reliable data as all the surveys were "purposely conducted wrongly … (to) delay the declare (ation of the) percentage of ST population in Goa."

Stating that they would no longer tolerate the injustice to these communities anymore, the federation president Mr Anton Gauncar expressed his shock that the government was not taking any initiative in the interest of "Goan People."

"We are ready to show land to the government of around 10 lakh sq mt. The government should acquire this land and allocate this land to the tribal people for construction of houses," Mr Gauncar argued. Stating that Goa was liberated in 1961 and that the tribal communities in Goa existed for more than 500 years - during the Portuguese rule these communities were known as ‘Tribu’ means Tribes – and after Liberation the Union government accepted the fact that the tribal people existed in Goa for centuries and the Goans at large, fixed the cut-off date as 19-02-1968, endorsed as the presidential order, the federation criticised the fact that the government by not implementing the Tribal Bill has made a loss to the tune of Rs 6000 crores to these communities and asked who would compensate for this huge loss.

Stating that every year the government is earning Rs 6000 crore foreign exchange by way of ore export, out of which nothing is utilized for the benefit of the tribal people in Goa, it states that this ore in reality was discovered by the tribal people.