Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik writes to Centre over inclusion of 160 communities in ST list
India Today
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik has written to the Centre over the inclusion of 160 communities in the Scheduled Tribe list of the state.
CM Patnaik, in a letter to Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda, on Friday reiterated the demand for the inclusion of more than 160 communities of Odisha in the ST (Schedule Tribe) list of the state.
The Schedule Tribes (ST) account for almost 22 per cent of the state's population
A Task Force under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs had recommended nine proposals from Odisha as priority cases for inclusion in the ST list of the state in 2014 but the same is yet to be notified in the Presidential order.
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From 1978 onwards, government of Odisha has recommended more than 160 communities of the state to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs for their inclusion in the ST list of the state with the approval of the Tribes Advisory Council. Among these, some are new entries. Some others are sub-tribes/subsets, synonyms and phonetic variations of the existing ST communities residing in different parts of the State who are being deprived of the benefits availed by STs though they have the same tribal characteristics as their respective notified STs, stated Patnaik.
“I am given to understand that a Task Force under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs had recommended 9 proposals from Odisha as priority cases for inclusion in the ST list of the state in the year 2014, but the same is yet to be notified in the Presidential Order,” the Chief Minister said.
“I would, therefore, request you to kindly look into this long pending matter and expedite the scheduling of these left-out communities to deliver social justice to them in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of India,” he said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media.
