Bill to amend SC/ST list in Uttar Pradesh introduced in Lok Sabha

A bill to amend the list relating to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of Uttar Pradesh was introduced in Lok Sabha on Monday with Congress leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury urging the Centre to avoid piecemeal measures and instead bring comprehensive legislation for various states.

He also claimed that the bill was brought keeping in mind the Uttar Pradesh polls, a charge rejected by Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda. "The polls are over. This has nothing to do with the elections," the minister said.

Munda also explained that such bills are brought after careful study of data and lots of research goes into it.

Intervening at the stage of introduction of the Bill, Chowdhury said similar bills were pending in Rajya Sabha.

He said instead of bringing separate bills, the government should bring a comprehensive measure to include various states in a singular Bill.

The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was later introduced by a voice vote.

According to the provisions of Articles 341 and 342 of the Constitution, the first lists of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes were notified in 1950 in respect of various states and union territories through Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) order, 1950.

According to the Bill, the Uttar Pradesh government had requested to exclude the 'Gond' community living in the newly-created districts of Sant Kabir Nagar, Kushinagar, Chandauli and Sant Ravidas Nagar from the list of Scheduled Castes.

It had pressed for the inclusion of Gond, Dhuria, Nayak, Ojha, Pathari and Rajgond communities living in the districts of Sant Kabir Nagar, Kushinagar, Chandauli and Sant Ravidas Nagar in the list of Scheduled Tribes in the state.

The government keeps amending the lists originally notified in 1950 based on requests made by various state governments.