BHUBANESWAR: With the BJD constantly pestering the Centre for the inclusion of 169 tribal communities from Odisha in the list of scheduled tribes, Union Tribal Minister Arjun Munda on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha the state government is unnecessarily blaming the Centre on the matter.
Replying to a discussion on the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Third Amendment) Bill, 2022 in the Upper House and responding to the demand of BJD MP Sasmit Patra, Munda said the Odisha government has submitted a list of 169 communities out of which 81 communities have been returned to the state government due to lack of supporting documents.
Munda said it is the responsibility of the state government to conduct anthropological and ethnographic studies of the communities which it wants to include in the list of tribals either by Tribal Research Institute or institute and organisation of national or international repute with potential to undertake action research in the fields of tribal development been sent to the Registrar General of India (RGI) for scrutiny.