India to approve 18 more tribes as official

Ranchi: The Indian government will designate 18 more communities as tribes eligible for statutory benefits.

This was announced on February 26 by the Nation Commission for STs (Scheduled Tribes).

Commission chairperson Rameshwar Oraon told reporters in Ranchi, capital of Jharkhand, the federal cabinet will soon approve the 18 communities from different states in the Scheduled Tribe category.

A cabinet note in this regard has already been prepared and approved by the commission, he said.

After the approval of the cabinet, the proposal would go to the parliament as an amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders Act, he said.

Over the last three years, the commission has been making recommendations to the government as regards inclusion of communities into the ST list, Oraon said.

Two of those communities are Jharkhand’s Bhokta and Puran, reports twocircles.net.

“Bhokta is at present in Schedule Caste category and Puran does not belong to the reserved category,” Oraon added.

While Bhokta cummunity has a sizable population in the eastern Indian state, members of Puran cummunity number about 10,000.