Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday urged Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Arjun Munda to include more than 160 proposals recommended by the State Government for inclusion in the ST list of Odisha.
Since 1978 onwards, Government of Odisha has recommended more than 160 Communities of the State to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for their inclusion in the ST list of the State with approval of Tribes Advisory Council, the Chief Minister said in a letter to Munda.
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, he pointed out.
“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,” said Mr.Patnaik.
Because of the delay in their inclusion in the ST list, he said, all these 160 plus communities of the State are becoming victims of historical injustice.
He requested the Union Minister to 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 Constitutions of India.
This shall go a long way in helping these deprived communities by giving them their much needed recognition as ST and ensure social justice, he added.
Informing about his previous letters written to the Union Tribal Ministers since the year 2011, the CM said he had made communications with the Government of India on this sensitive matter in 2011, 2012 and 2021.
“I would like to bring the above matter for your kind perusal and urge for urgent action addressing the long-standing pending matter and do justice to the communities who are waiting for decades to get their due grievances redressed,” he wrote.