BHUBANESWAR: On a day when the national president of the BJP JP Nadda lashed out at the state government over misgovernance, the BJD on Wednesday demonstrated in front of collectorates of nine tribal-dominated districts demanding the inclusion of 160 tribal groups in the ST list.
Earlier during the week, a delegation of BJD MPs had met Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda in New Delhi with the same demand.
Alleging that the delay on the part of the Centre has brought to the fore its neglect towards the state, the BJD submitted a memorandum to the President of India through the district collectors. The BJD demonstrations for the tribals have come ahead of the 2024 elections. The tribals comprise 22.85 per cent population in Odisha and constitute a major vote bank.
Stating that Odisha has a huge tribal population of which a major segment belongs to the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), the BJD said that special development councils (SDCs) have been formed in these nine districts to take up welfare and development works for them. BJD held demonstrations in Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Kandhamal, Gajapati, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur and Malkangiri.
The party said that the government has undertaken many works for their all-around development. But many communities in these areas are yet to be recognised as tribals due to delays by the Centre. The demand for their inclusion in the ST list are pending with the Centre for many years now, the BJD said and maintained that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had met Munda in New Delhi on September 16 to take up the issue. Similar demands were made before the Centre thrice earlier.
Describing it as unfortunate that such efforts by the state government and the chief minister have not been acknowledged by the Centre, the party alleged that an attempt is being made now that there was no such demand. The BJD has apprised the President in the memorandum about the steps taken by the state government for the inclusion of 14.5 lakh people of 18,687 villages in 117 blocks in the ST list.
The CM had also written a letter to the Centre in this regard on February 19, 2011. A delegation of senior officials from the tribal affairs ministry also visited the state on April 20, 2022, during which the state government raised the demand for the inclusion of 169 communities in the ST list. The state government later sent a detail report with recommendations for the inclusion of nine communities in the ST list. But the recommendation is also pending with the Centre, it added.