Over 1000 proposals for inclusion of communities in ST list

The government has received over 1000 proposals from various organisations and state governments for inclusion of various communities in the list of scheduled tribes over the years, Lok Sabha was informed today.

"The ministry of Tribal Affairs has over the years received proposals in excess of 1000 from various organisations and state governments for inclusion of various communities in the list of scheduled tribes," Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Tushar A Chaudhary stated in a written reply to a question.

He was asked whether Union government has received proposals from various state governments including Assam, Goa, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand for inclusion of various communities in the list of scheduled tribes.

In order to ensure that only genuine cases are taken up for inclusion, the modalities approved for dealing with such proposals require that the concerned state government or union territory administration send the proposal along with its justification, Chaudhary stated.

Besides, such proposals also require that the Registrar General of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes agree to them, he added.

"All proposals are dealt in terms of these modalities and only those proposals which have been agreed by all the above three agencies are taken up for inclusion (in the ST list) through amending legislation," he said.