Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Jul 24: The Centre has directed the government of Arunachal Pradesh to extend benefits and include the Yobin in the state’s Scheduled Tribe (ST) list, saying the Yobin and any other tribe “inhabiting in Arunachal Pradesh is inclusive tribe and no separate amendments are required in terms of Article 342(2) of the Constitution of India.”
In a letter addressed to the state’s social justice, empowerment & tribal affairs ministry, Under-secretary to Government of India, Asghar Ali, observed that the Yobin tribe does not figure among the 16 tribes that were enumerated as per the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 (Part XVIII).
“The words ‘all tribes in the state including’ are indicative that the list of STs in Arunachal Pradesh is an open-ended list, which means all indigenous tribes in the state of Arunachal Pradesh are included, besides those listed in (16 tribes),” the under-secretary explained.
He said, however, that the list is illustrative and not limited only to 16 tribes “and no separate amendments are required in Article 342(2) of Indian Constitution” to include the tribe in the ST list.
“The illustrations cannot restrict the ambit of the provision. Thus, Yobin or any other tribe inhabiting in Arunachal Pradesh is an inclusive tribe and no separate amendments are required in terms of Article 342(2) of the Constitution of India,” Ali said.
“However, if there is any doubt whether a particular community is an indigenous tribe of the state, only then a proposal would be required to be formulated, based on an ethnographic study,” he added.
“In all other cases, local enquiries with ethnographic study, where necessary, should suffice for the state to issue community certificates,” he said.
The government on 15 June, 1999 (further amended on 25.06.2002) had laid down the modalities for deciding the claims for inclusion in, exclusion from, and other modifications in orders specifying Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes lists.
As per the modalities, only those proposals which have been recommended and justified by the state government/UT administration concerned, and concurred with by the registrar general of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, are to be considered and legislation amended.
Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Jaswantsinh Sumanbhai Bhabhor informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday that a proposal has been received from the government of Arunachal Pradesh for making certain amendments in the list of STs of the state, including substitution of ‘Any Naga Tribes’ at Sl No 10 of the list of STs by ‘Nocte, Tangsa, Tutsa, Wancho’ communities.
The proposal is under process as per approved modalities.
Eastern Parliamentarian Ninong Ering had in early June this year urged Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram to include Yobin, Nocte, Tutsa, Tangsa and Wangcho tribes in the central government’s list of STs.
