Pramod Sawant to meet Amit Shah, Arjun Munda to discuss inclusion of Goa’s Dhangars in ST category

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is scheduled to meet Home Minister Amit Shah and Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda on Monday to discuss the inclusion of Goa’s Dhangar community in the Scheduled Tribes category.

Sawant left for Delhi on Sunday along with Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, state Urban Development Minister Milind Naik and Speaker Rajesh Patnekar to meet Shah and Munda. According to government officials, Goa Chief Secretary Parimal Rai, state special advisor consultant for the Social Welfare Department N D Agarwal and Dhangar community members Dr Janu Zore, Dr Rajan Lambor and Dr Shantaram Surme are part of the delegation that left for Delhi on Sunday evening.

There are around 30,000 people in Goa’s Dhangar community, which falls under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The community has been seeking reservation under the ST category for years. Government officials said that Kavlekar, who belongs to the Dhangar community, has had four meetings over the reservation in Delhi prior to his scheduled meeting with Shah.

The meeting over the reservation comes months ahead of the Goa Assembly polls, slated for February-March 2022.