Two Tamil Nadu communities get Scheduled Tribe status

The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022, which seeks to grant Scheduled Tribe status to Narikoravan and Kurivikkaran communities in Tamil Nadu.

During the discussion on the Bill, opposition MPs demanded that instead of adopting a "piecemeal" approach, the government should make a comprehensive list of tribes and take "meaningful steps" towards their inclusion and recognition as Scheduled Tribes. AIADMK MP P Ravindhranath sought clarification on the status of the ethnography survey conducted on 267 nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes by the Anthropological Survey of India and the Tribal Research Institute.

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Piloting the Bill, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda said there was "no politics involved" in the move, and it follows the suggestion of the Tamil Nadu government. Munda said the decision to include the two communities in the ST list will benefit about 27,000 people.

National Commission for Minorities

In a written response to a question by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Minority Affairs Minister Smriti Irani said in the Lok Sabha that there is no proposal to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Minorities (NCM).

The NCP was established as a statutory body with the enactment of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, by Parliament.

Simultaneous polls

In a written reply, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha that elections had become a "big budget affair and expensive" and holding simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies would result in huge savings to the exchequer.

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Simultaneous polls would also curb the adverse effect due to prolonged enforcement of Model Code of Conduct due to asynchronous Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, he said.

Elections to Lok Sabha and all state legislative assemblies were held simultaneously in 1951-52, 1957, 1962 and 1967. However, due to the premature dissolution of some legislative assemblies in 1968 and 1969, the cycle got disrupted.

Govt spent Rs 3,723.38 crore on advertisement in last five years

The government spent Rs 3,723.38 crore on advertisements of its policies and programmes over the past five years through the Central Bureau of Communication, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

In a written reply, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the expenditure on advertisements and publicity has not increased over the past five years. According to the data shared by the government, Rs 1,220.89 crore was spent on advertisements in 2017-18 while expenditure of Rs 1,106.88 crore was incurred in 2018-19, which was ahead of the general elections of 2019.

The government spent Rs 627.67 crore in 2019-20; Rs 349.09 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 264.78 crore in 2021-22, Thakur said. In the current financial year, the government has spent Rs 154.07 crore on advertisements till December 9, he said.