Northeast Desk, 7th August: The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has provided a comprehensive response to questions posed by Dorjee Tshering Lepcha regarding the inclusion of 12 left-out communities from Sikkim in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list.
Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, Durgadas Uikey, explained that the Government of India follows established modalities for determining the inclusion of communities in the ST list. This process necessitates ethnographic reports and recommendations from the relevant State Government or Union Territory Administration.
The proposals undergo a review by the Registrar General of India (RGI) and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) before being considered for legislative amendments.
Regarding the communities from Sikkim, Uikey noted that the proposals for 11 communities were not supported by the RGI and have been referred back to the State Government for further clarification. He assured that welfare measures for these communities would be addressed upon their official inclusion in the ST list.
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