ST Demand : 'decided by merits; not by opinion poll'
- Imphal, November 21, 2022 -
*
World Meetei Council is truly shocked to come across a Manipur government’s call for taking a vote on public opinion on the demand to include Meetei in the list of Scheduled Tribes of the Indian Constitution.
The fact of the matter is to include a group of people into the list of Scheduled Tribes or not is to be decided by the merits of the demand as prescribed by the Lokur Committee and not by any opinion poll.
WMC cannot understand the intention of the government for making the issue of Meetei ST cause a subject for taking votes of public opinion. We all know that the latest census data shows that Meetei's population has been reduced to around 44% of the total population of Manipur from the earlier 61% approx, as recorded in 1971 census on which the delimitation of the present Assembly seats were based upon like in the other states of the country.
Anyway whatever maybe the intention of the Manipur government one thing is certain that the result of the opinion poll will only send out an extremely wrong message that could create more unwanted situations, besides the fact that the practicality of conducting such opinion polls where the number of Meetei people with smartphones are less than 25% of the Meetei population and fewer still is the number of Meetei population with email ID, is almost impossible, must be noted.
Therefore WMC appeals to the Hon'ble CM of Manipur to kindly review the opinion poll exercise and necessary action may alsobe taken against the responsible officials who had made dubious attempt to confuse the public in the name of celebrating Azadi Ka Amrit Mahatsav.
Yambem Arun Meetei
Secretary General
CEC - World Meetei Council
* This info was sent to e-pao.net by World Meetei Council who can be contacted at worldmeeteicouncil(AT)gmail(DOT)com
This article was posted on November 22, 2022 .
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