NEW DELHI, Sept 17: The Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has drawn the attention of the Centre to the fact that over 160 proposals of the state government for the inclusion of communities in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) list of Odisha remain unaddressed for decades.
From 1978 onwards, the Odisha government has recommended more than 160 communities for their inclusion in the ST list of the state with the approval of the Tribal Advisory Council. Because of the delay in their inclusion in the ST list, all these 160-plus communities of the state are becoming victims of “historical injustice,” Patnaik said in a letter to Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda.
Stating that among these (160 communities) some are new while others are sub-tribes/subsets, synonyms and phonetic variations of the existing ST communities residing in different parts of the state, Patnaik said they are being deprived of benefits availed by STs though they have the same characteristics as their respective notified STs.
“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,” Patnaik mentioned in the letter.
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.” Patnaik said this shall go a long way in helping these deprived communities by giving them their much-needed recognition as ST and ensuring social justice.
He said since 2011 onwards a number of communications have been made with the Government of India on this “sensitive matter.” He urged Munda for urgent action addressing the long-standing pending matter and to do justice to the communities who are waiting for decades to get their due grievances redressed.
(Manas Dasgupta)