The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed a Bill that seeks to remove the Bhogta caste from the list of Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Jharkhand and include certain other communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes (STs) for the state.
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The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was passed by a voice vote.
The discussion on the Bill saw several members raising the demand for inclusion of certain communities in their respective states in the SC and ST lists.
Replying to the debate on the Bill, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda said, “We will bring such amendments related to more states in the House. We have done (such amendments for) Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Now it is being done in the case of Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and Jharkhand. We are doing research on Odisha. We have completed the work in Chhattisgarh, but we are working on some observations given on that by the Law Ministry.”
He said the Centre is concerned about the development of tribal people and the aspirational district programme is a step in that direction, as the main objective is to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.
The Bill amends the Schedule to the ST Order to include communities such as Deshwari, Ganjhu, Dautalbandi (Dwalbandi), Patbandi, Raut, Maajhia, Khairi (Kheri), Tamaria (Tamadia), and Puran in the list of STs in Jharkhand. The government keeps amending the lists originally notified in 1950 based on requests made by various states.
“Be it Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra or Gujarat, for all states, the Centre is earnestly and seriously working to address the issues, while also assuring that the government will share the status on the demand for inclusion of different communities from West Bengal, Goa and Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Source: india Express
