Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh on January 9 said that an all-tribe committee would be formed to decide on whether the Chin Kuki community would be deleted from the Scheduled Tribes list of the State.
The Chief Minister’s statement came in the wake of a letter by the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs seeking the state government’s views on the demand for deletion of the “nomadic Chin Kuki” community from Manipur’s ST list.
The demand was made by Maheshwar Thounaojam, National Secretary of the Republican Party of India (Athawale), who claimed that members of that community are not indigenous people of India but immigrants.
