Centre mulls 6-month deadline to states on unique tribal

With over 1000 communities in India seeking unique tribal status, the Centre is contemplating to issue a six-month deadline to state governments to reply on the status of these communities, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Joal Oram said today.
"According to the new guidelines, the state government will be given a six-month time to respond and justify to queries with regards to communities seeking scheduled tribes after which the Centre will not entertain," Oram told PTI here.
He said, "We are waiting for the cabinet to approve the new guidelines for processing and deciding the status of a community to be included in the Scheduled Tribes list."

Oram, who visited three remote project sites where the Tribal Affairs Ministry is providing funds in East Khasi Hills district, said over 1000 applications are pending for inclusion in the Scheduled tribes list in the country which will be decided after the cabinet approves the new processing guidelines.
According to the Union Minister, the new guidelines will include the time frame apart from the previous five-point provisions such as the distinct culture, socio-economic backwardness, signs of contacts and geographical isolation.
The ministry of Tribal Affairs has over the years received over 1000 proposals from various organisations and state governments for inclusion of various communities in the list of scheduled tribes.

Besides, such proposals also require that the Registrar General of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes agree to them.
Meanwhile, Ora will be reviewing the progress of the different projects in Meghalaya tomorrow.