Demand for ST status echoes amid poll buzzes
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, April 01 2024:
Just days before the Lok Sabha polls hit Manipur, Khwairamband Ima Keithel womenfolk have renewed their demand to the Government for inclusion of the Meitei/Meetei community in the Scheduled Tribes' list.
"Send the recommendations and the requisite socio-economic survey and ethnographic report to the Centre, then people may vote wholeheartedly in the Lok Sabha elections," said the Khwairamband Ima Keithel Joint Coordinating Committee For Peace.
Manipur will vote in two phases -- Inner Parliamentary Constituency on April 19, along with some Assembly segments of Outer Parliamentary Constituency.
The remaining segments of the Outer Manipur Parliamentary Constituency will vote on April 26 .
Counting will be done on June 4.Significantly, the Meitei/Meetei community, which is the only indigenous community in Manipur that has not been given the ST tag, has been demanding the status for decades.
Heeding to the demand for inclusion of the community in the ST list, in 2013, the Central Ministry of Tribal Affairs had asked the Government of Manipur to send specific recommendations along with the latest socio-economic survey and ethnographic report for its consideration.
However, even after a decade, the State Government is yet to send the recommendations the Central Ministry of Tribal Affairs had sought.
At Manipur Press Club, Imphal today, Huirem Binodini, co-convener of Khwairamband Ima Keithel Joint Coordinating Committee For Peace, said the demand for recognising Meitei/Meetei as a Scheduled Tribe is a legitimate demand to protect and safeguard the interests of the indigenous community.
When Manipur merged with the Union of India in 1949, the Meitei/Meetei community had all the characteristics and met all criteria to be recognised as a Scheduled Tribe.
However, the community has been deprived of this status till today, Binodini said.
She asserted that while the indigenous Meitei/Meetei community has not been given the rightful ST status, the Kukis who had migrated to Manipur have been recognised as a Scheduled Tribe.
The Meitei/Meetei community today is facing many challenges and issues on many fronts which may be addressed only when it is given the Scheduled Tribe tag, she said.
The Meiteis/Meeteis have been forced to settle in the valley which is merely 10 per cent of the total geographical area of Manipur.
While all the other communities including the Scheduled Tribes can buy land and settle in the valley, Meiteis/Meeteis can't buy land in the hills, which constitute 90 per cent of the total geographical area, she said.
Beside this issue, the Meitei/Meetei community has been left behind in many sectors.
While the community's population is shrinking, it has been deprived of many other benefits which it should have enjoyed as a Scheduled Tribe, she added.
The demand for Scheduled Tribe tag is indispensable for safeguarding the community and its interests, she said, urging the State Government to send the recommendation and the latest socio-economic survey and ethnographic report to the Central Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
While commenting on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and conditions of the people staying in relief camps, she said the displaced folks may not be able to vote with peace of mind.
"If the State Government is able to send the recommendation and the socio-economic survey and ethnographic report to the Centre's Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and show written proof to the committee, then people may vote wholeheartedly in the Lok Sabha elections,"
Binodini said.