Khurai body backs ST demand
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, December 05 2022:
Coordinating Body, Khurai has endorsed the demand of the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee of Manipur (STDCM) and urged the Government to take up concrete steps to include Meitei/Meetei in the Scheduled Tribe list of the Indian Constitution.
In a statement issued by its vice chairman S Inaobi Meitei, the Coordinating Body, Khurai said the demand of the STDCM is legitimate and is a means to safeguard the indigenous community.
Without the ST status, Meitei/Meetei may become a minority in Manipur in the near future.
Inclusion of the community in the ST list is the best way to save the community and protect its identity.
The Coordinating Body, Khurai fully endorses the demand of the STDCM and it will continue to support the committee in its future course of actions, said the body.
It also appealed to the State Government to 'enhance its support' to include the community in the ST list.
It may be noted that the Scheduled Tribe Demand Committee (STDCM) has.
been demanding ST status for Meitei/Meetei for a decade now.
It has held a series of democratic agitations and approached many legislators recently.
Significantly, many MLAs and Ministers have come out openly supporting the demand of the STDCM.
Notably, the latest to lend support to STDCM was MLA Yumnam Radheshyam whom the members of the committee had visited recently.
During the meeting with the MLA, the STDCM members had urged him to extend support and also appealed to the State Government to send all the required reports and recommendations to the Centre to include Meitei/Meetei in the ST list.
The STDCM had also noted that the Centre in 2013 had sought recommendations along with ethnographic and latest socioeconomic survey reports of the Meitei/Meetei for consideration of the demand of the STDCM.
The State Government, however, has not yet sent the reports and recommendations sought by the Centre till today.