Imphal: The Schedule Tribe Demand Committee, Manipur (STDCM) has resumed its movement pressing the state government to immediately recommend Meitei/ Meetei to include in Scheduled Tribe (ST) list.
Relaunching its movement the demand committee staged a sit-in at Thangmeiband Lilashing Khongnangkhong on Saturday.
It scheduled to stage sit-in at Sagolband Tera and Singjamei, here on Sunday.
The committee had been demanding to enlist Meetei/Meitei community in the scheduled tribe category for the last many years.
Convenor of the coordinating body of the demand committee Laishram Romesh told reporters that the movement was launched to get constitutional safeguards for the indigenous ethnic identity of the Meetei/Meetei community.
It will also help in strengthening the bond of relationship between the community and remaining tribal communities of Manipur, he said.
Chief minister N. Biren Singh on March 4, 2019, gave the assurance in the House to initiate the required process to include Meitei or Meetei in ST list. The matter was discussed on the floor of the house in last year’s Manipur Assembly Session, he said.
The chief minister had said that the matter of inclusion of Meitei/Meetei is a much-needed matter which needs serious consideration. He assured to submit ethnographic and socio-economic status of Meitei/Meetei to the government of India so that the community attain the ST status, he added.
It is unfortunate that the government fails to take up any initiative, Romesh said.
The committee will intensify agitations if the state government remains a mute spectator, he cautioned.
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