Lok Sabha members from Karnataka on Monday urged the Centre to ensure the early passage of a Bill seeking to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the ‘Medara’ community in the State.
“I request you, with folded hands, to get it (Bill) passed in the other House too before the conclusion of this session. And see that this order goes to all the district headquarters by the end of June so that children get their ST certificates by the next academic year,” Dharwad MP Pralhad Joshi said, after the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2011, was moved by Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo for discussion.
While saying that the inclusion of Medara community in the ST list had been a long-pending demand, Joshi regretted that it had taken the government decades to correct a technical lapse that had denied benefits to the tribal population in the State.
A group of people from the community, who had arrived from Karnataka, sat in the Lok Sabha gallery and watched the proceedings of the House.
Congress member Jayaprakash Hegde supported the Bill and demanded the inclusion of
Koraga and Kudubi communities from Malnad and coastal districts of the State in the list of Primitive Tribes Group (PTG) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) respectively.
The Koraga community is at in lowest strata of society. The education level in this community is not more than five per cent. There are only a few boys and girls who have completed degree. However, even this small group has failed to find employment anywhere.
“Unless they are declared a primitive tribe, they will not be able to compete with even Scheduled Tribe boys and girls in those districts,” he said.
Kudubis, who are still in the list of backward class, should be included in the ST list. People from the community have not gone beyond teaching or clerical posts, he said.
