ST category demand for Meiteis : NCST invites IMF for talks at Delhi
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 23 2022:
Citing many reasons why the Meetei/Meitei must be categorised as a Scheduled Tribe, the International Meetei Forum (IMF) submitted a memorandum to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) on December 22 .
As per a statement issued by the IMF, the visiting Central team has invited the forum for talks at the National capital.
The Scheduled Tribe Committee of Manipur (STDCM) has also submitted their memorandum to restore the tribal status of Meetei/Meitei to NCST yesterday.
The memoranda of IMF and STDCM were submitted to Ananta Nayak, leader of the NCST team.
In its memorandum, IMF claimed that the Centre only recognises people of hill areas in Manipur as ST though the 2011 Census report of India clearly mentioned that over 92 per cent of ST population resides in the valley of the country.
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The forum further stated that Manipur can be considered as a hill State as its valley and hill area lie at an elevation of 2600 and 3000 feet on average respectively.
In the context of India, ST tag is given to indigenous communities or groups, IMF said and added that the Meetei/Meitei is also an indigenous community which possesses all the characteristics of being a tribe.
The forum claimed that the Centre has wrongfully accorded ST tag to nomadic refugees and foreigners on the ground that they settle in hill districts.
Notably, the movement spearheaded by STDCM and supported by the likes of World Meetei Council (WMC) and others to accord ST tag to the ethnic group has been gaining momentum as majority of the valley MLAs they met speak in favour of the cause.
There, however, are some groups such as ATSUM which oppose the movement and even term it as illogical by projecting the Meetei/Meitei as a civilised group on the ground that, inter-alia, it has a written history spanning over 2000 years.