Naveen writes to Centre over pending proposals on Scheduled Tribes list of Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has urged the Centre to consider pending proposals regarding inclusion of communities recommended by the Government of Odisha in the State’s Scheduled Tribes list. In a letter to the Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda dated 16.09.2022, the CM said more than 160 proposals are pending in this regard and urged the Union Minister to expedite the scheduling of the tribes recommended by the State which would help deliver social justice to the left-out communities in accordance with provisions of the Constitution of India.

“Since 1978 onwards, Government of Odisha has recommended more than 160 communities of the State to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India for their inclusion in the ST list of the State with approval of the Tribes Advisory Council. Among these are some new entries. Some others are sub-tribes/sub-sets, 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 the STs though they have the same tribal characteristics as their respective notified STs..Since 2011, a number of communications have been made by me with Government of India on this sensitive matter,” the CM wrote in the letter, urging immediate action on the long-standing matter.

The letter also mentioned that 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. Due to this, all 160 plus communities of the State are becoming victims of social justice.