Proposal To Include 169 Communities Of Odisha In ST List Lying With Centre, Says Minister

Bhubaneswar: As many as 169 tribal communities of Odisha have not been included in the Scheduled Tribe list by the Central government.

This was stated by House, Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare and Cooperation Minister Nayak Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak in reply to a question of Udala MLA Bhaskar Madhei during the question-and-answer hour in the Assembly on Saturday.

The minister said though the state government had sent the proposal for inclusion of 169 communities in the Scheduled Tribes list, it is still lying with the Centre.

“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to the then Union Minister requesting him to approve the proposals for inclusion of the 169 communities in the Scheduled Tribes list on February 19, 2021. The proposals are still lying with the Central government,” Nayak said.

However, the government would take up the issue with the Centre in future as the people belonging to these communities were deprived of various welfare schemes, he added.

Madhei and other members raised the question why several tribal communities were excluded from the list of Scheduled Tribes. Since the minister of the department concerned was absent, Nayak submitted the reply.