Guwahati: State education minister Ranoj Pegu stated on Monday that the Centre would make the final decision about the subject of granting Scheduled Tribes (ST) status to the various marginalised communities in the Assam Assembly.
Pegu announced that the Assam Tea Tribes had a total of 98 sub-branches during the current autumn session of the Assam Assembly.
The education minister informed the Assembly that a collection of 36 of these sub-branches has been prepared for granting the status of scheduled tribes.
He added that the Centre is looking into the possibility of six ethnic groups of Assam scheduled tribal status.
Pegu further disclosed that a package of Rs 500 crores had been set up for the development of the relevant communities, with packages totaling Rs 25 crores going to each village.
The Assam cabinet minister added that an autonomous council for development had been established in this regard.
However, the Centre will have the last say about the grant of scheduled tribe status, Pegu stated.
It should be mentioned that the Center earlier this month decided to add a number of communities to the list of STs for the five states of Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.
The decision was made at a Union Cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and it was warmly embraced by the states involved.
On the other hand, the Matak Youth Students’ Council and Students’ Union had organised a protest in response to the Centre’s choice to omit Assamese communities from its updated lists of ST.