GUWAHATI, Feb 8 � The Government of India is likely to grant the status of Scheduled Tribes to a few of the Adivasi communities of Assam immediately after receiving the formal proposal from the State Government in this regard.
Highly placed sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told The Assam Tribune that some of the Adivasi tribes enjoy the status of Scheduled Tribes in the states like Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh etc and there is no problem in granting the same status to them in Assam.
Sources pointed out that earlier the State Government sent proposals for declaring more than 90 tribes as Scheduled tribes by clubbing them as tea Tribes, which was not found to be feasible. Sources said that the State Government has been asked to submit a fresh proposal for ST status to the tribes of Adivasi community which enjoy the ST status in other states of the country. The ethnography study in this regard has been carried out and the Government of India would start the process immediately after receiving the formal proposal from the State Government along with the study reports.
Sources said that as majority of the nine militant groups, which laid down arms in presence of the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi recently belong to the Adivasi community, granting of ST status would solve the problem to a great extent.
MHA sources said that the Kuki and Hmar militant groups, which also laid down arms recently, also submitted their charter of demands and the State Government has been asked by the Centre to study the demands and submit its recommendations to the Government of India for necessary action. Sources expressed the view that solution of the problems raised by the Kuki and Hmar militant groups should not be a major problem and the MHA would act on their demands immediately after receiving the recommendations of the Assam Government.
