Union Minister Arjun Munda. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022 to include the Hattee community in the Trans-Giri region of Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh in the Scheduled Tribes list of the State after Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda moved a motion to have the Bill passed.
The Minister moved the motion after his concluding remarks on the discussion on the Bill, which had gone on for two days. Mr. Munda said the Hattee people had been deprived of the ST status for decades, despite their family members living across the border in Uttarakhand being categorised as such.
He said the Central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been focussing on bringing justice to such communities which have been deprived of the status for decades, and cited the example of including Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran tribes in the ST list of Tamil Nadu.
He said the governmentтАЩs intention was to bring development to those living in the remotest parts of the country and that it was not for тАЬvote politicsтАЭ.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has consistently promised in election manifestos to include the Hattee community in the ST list, including in that of the recent Assembly election, where it lost the State to the Indian National Congress (INC).
The Union Cabinet had announced its approval for the addition just weeks before the Himachal Pradesh poll dates were announced. Interestingly, the BJP won three of the five Assembly seats in Sirmaur district this election.
The Bill received support from across party lines during the discussion and was passed in the Lower House through a voice vote.
During the discussion, several members spoke of the need to address similar demands from several other communities across the country to be included in the ST list. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule insisted that the government should bring a comprehensive Bill to address the demands of all such communities. Others, including Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka (INC) and Navneet Ravi Rana (Ind), also spoke of the need to formulate policies that actually benefit tribal populations, the need to stop land alienation of tribals, and the need to address their health and educational needs.
In response, Mr. Munda on Friday said that his government was cognisant of these issues and has been continuously working with State governments and other Union government ministries to stop land alienation, address sickle cell disease, anaemia among tribal populations, and take care of their educational needs.
