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[ Avia Ngwazah ]<\/strong><\/p>\n \n When issuance of ST certificates to Yobin tribe halted in 2017, the affected tribe worked hard to find the cause and the solution. Soon, it was found that the objection was about a faulty ‘notification’ and not on Yobin tribe per se. Then representations headed by the Yobin Fundamental Rights Forum followed.<\/p>\n Heeded by the ST authorities concerned, the rectification\/reissuance came in 2018 itself. This was how it got restored: (i) The ORGI under MHA clarified to Yobin tribe that ‘Yobin also a notified ST in Arunachal Pradesh’ [ref: File No 28\/1\/2017-SS (Public Grievance)\/75];\u00a0 (ii) The constitution & legal matters division (C&LM) of the MoTA had issued directives to GoAP: ‘Thus, Yobin\u2026 is inclusive tribe and no separate amendments are required in terms of Article 342(2) of the Constitution of India. In view of the above, the state government of Arunachal Pradesh is advised to extend benefits\/issue certificates to Yobin tribe\u2026’; (iii) The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), having fully investigated the issue, realised that it was against the Constitution, and directed the state government: ‘The state of Arunachal Pradesh is advised to extend the benefits of ST to Yobin tribe and also issue ST certificate to Yobin tribe immediately.’<\/p>\n By the 30 May, 2018, the commission asked for an action taken report from the chief secretary of the state.<\/p>\n These directives of the Government of India were read by the advocate general of the state, the then Cabinet acted accordingly, and finally processed by the SJETA and issuance of STCs to Yobin tribe resumed in the most unique and spectacular manner in an event chaired by Changlang DC RK Sharma.<\/p>\n CS Satya Gopal made the announcement, and actual ST certificates were distributed jointly by CM Pema Khandu, DCM Chowna Mein, MP Tapir Gao, and minister Kamlung Mossang in the presence of MLAs, officers, officials, public leaders and the general public.<\/p>\n Essentially, people, including the officers concerned, sincerely question as to the constitutional validity of Yobin ST, not having gone through an Act of Parliament as per the Article 342(2) of the Constitution of India, and not having listed by name in the constitutional ST lists.<\/p>\n While this is a genuine query, they forget to study Clause (1) of the same article, that is Article 342(1), where STs are ordered directly by the president of India (in consultation with the governor of the UT\/state) without touching the Parliament. This was exactly what happened for NEFA also. This 342(1) route is but typically less-known.<\/p>\n It helps to note that the presidential ST orders have both the specific ST tribes’ names as well as group STs\/’inclusive tribes’. Accordingly, for Northeast India, there are constitutional group-ST provisions like any Naga, any Lushai, any Mizo, any Kuki, etc. But the most blessed is Arunachal Pradesh. In his farsighted wisdom, when it came to Part XVIII-Arunachal Pradesh, the president has included “all” indigenous tribes in the order.<\/p>\n Arunachal ST amendments: Since the mid-1970s different tribes of the state have been pressing for amendments. It is seen that there are two sorts of ST amendments done in the state since the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n One is nomenclature corrections because the tribes so preferred. Thus Adi, Nyishi, Galo, Tai-Khamti stand as amended names. The other type is to come out from the group-STs to individual STs. This is more of a felt need to overcome some practical difficulties associated with the group STs, where one is not mentioned by tribe’s individual ST names. Herein, Taraon, Kaman, and Idu came out to ‘Mishmi’. Nocte, Tangsa, Tutsa, and Wancho came out of ‘any Naga’. ‘Momba’ was individualised as Memba, Monpa, Sartang, and Sajalong (Miji).<\/p>\n Now, Yobin also, recommended by state time and again, been together all along for ST amendment, so that Yobin also gets notified as individual ST by name in lieu of being an inclusive tribe. Having fulfilled all modalities, the tribe is still waiting for by-name ST notification, although constitutionally and legally the tribe is already a notified ST in the state of Arunachal, as clarified by the Government of India.<\/p>\n In view of the abode of the tribe, it is highly expedient that the Yobin tribe, which dwells along international borders of the extreme Northeast India, gets the much-needed ST amendment done at the earliest, so that the tribe may not suffer any possible political or social vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n The state government (SJETA) had reported to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in December 2018 that the directives of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the NCST, the MHA, etc, have been complied with and Yobin is being given ST certificates as per the Constitution (ST) Orders, 1950 Part XVIII. The state government has also urged the MoTA to take steps immediately, so that Yobin also gets notified by-name through an Act of Parliament.<\/p>\n Therefore, until that amendment happens, the current<\/p>\n arrangement made by the state government under the constitutional provision cited above is completely legal and constitutional as authenticated by the NCST, MHA, the Constitution & legal matters division, GoI and must be treated accordingly.<\/p>\n Let everyone learn to respect the (ST) orders of the president of the great republic of India and uphold the constitutional ST rights afforded by the ambit of this presidential ST order. (The writer is the general secretary of the Yobin Tribe Fundamental Rights Forum)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ Avia Ngwazah ] When issuance of ST certificates to Yobin tribe halted in 2017, the affected tribe worked hard to find the cause and the solution. Soon, it was found that the objection was about a faulty ‘notification’ and not on Yobin tribe per se. Then representations headed by the Yobin Fundamental Rights Forum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-281356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281376,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281356\/revisions\/281376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}