NT Reporter
Panaji
Congress has always fought to safeguard the constitutional rights and dignity of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community and remains committed to empowering leaders from the community, said All India Congress Committee (AICC) Goa in-charge Manikrao Thakare. Thakare was speaking at a programme held at Congress House on Wednesday, where prominent ST leader from Sanguem Satyavan Gaonkar joined the party along with several supporters.
Thakare said Congress had consistently respected the identity of the ST
community by recognising its members as Adivasis and had fought to safeguard their constitutional rights and dignity. He said capable leaders such as Gaonkar would be entrusted with greater organisational responsibilities to strengthen the party and serve the
interests of the Adivasi
community.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar said Gaonkar’s induction, along with his supporters, would strengthen the Congress organisation at the grassroots level in the Sanguem Assembly constituency.
Chodankar challenged the BJP government to explain why it had failed to provide the statutory allocation of Rs 3,200 crore under the Scheduled Tribe Sub-Plan and why it continued to deny the ST community its rightful benefits.
Reiterating his earlier stand, Chodankar said the BJP had never been serious about granting political reservation to the ST community in the Assembly.
‘I had earlier stated that BJP would never provide Assembly reservation to the ST community, and today that prediction has proved true. It only remembers various communities during elections and uses them as vote banks,’ Chodankar said.
Working Presidents Carlos Alvares Ferreira (Aldona MLA) and Sunil Kawthankar, South Goa District Congress president Rajesh Verekar, media and communication department chairman Amarnath Panjikar and others were present.
