I’ll sacrifice as MLA over tenancy issue: Wagh

Ponda: Claiming that the party whip did not allow him to oppose the amendments to the Tenancy and Mundkar Act on the floor of the house, St Andre’s BJP MLA Vishnu Surya Wagh has said that he will be with United Tribal’s Association Alliance (UTAA) in their movement against the amendments and he
did not care about his post
as MLA.
Wagh was addressing a overcrowded audience gathered to commemorate the 10th anniversary of United Tribal’s Association Alliance (UTAA), a parent body of eight tribal organizations including Gomantak Gaud Maratha Samaj; Tribal Welfare Association; Gawda, Kunbi, Velip Dhangar Federation; All Goa Scheduled Tribes Union; Tribes of Goa; Gomantak Velip Samaj Sangh; Taleigao Tribal Welfare and Gaud Jamat Mahasangh-Goa at Sun Grace Garden Hall, Bethora-Ponda on Sunday.
Wagh said his stand on the issue was very clear. He had expressed his opposition to the amendments before the chief minister and party functionaries, but, when the bill was introduced in the assembly, he could not oppose it as the party had imposed a whip on all its members.
He assured the UTAA that he would be with them to oppose the amendments and he would step down from his seat in protest if the government did not roll back the amendments. Expressing his support to UTAA’s demand of 12 percent political reservation, Wagh demanded that at least six seats in the next assembly must be reserved for the scheduled tribes (STs). Stating that STs are the members of early civilization, Wagh said despite having a history of over 65,000 years, they are not getting their rights, but on the contrary, government changes laws to benefit outsiders.
UTAA convener Govind Gaude regretted that some of his community members use the caste tag to climb to higher positions in society and later forget the community’s work. He said the STs are always deprived of their constitutional rights and they have to fight to get it.
Another activist Govind Shirodkar claimed that the government is reluctant to implement schemes meant for the STs and the government did not even utilize over 80 percent of the amount allotted for the schemes of STs.
“The government had allotted 416 crore for developmental schemes for the STs, but, it has hardly utilized 95 crore and about 319 crore has gone back,” Shirodkar said.
Several ST leaders including late Priol legislator
Kashinath Jalmi, Anton
Francis Fernandes and Dilip Katu Velip were felicitated posthumously.