Tiruppur MP K. Subbarayan has urged the State government to include Malayali tribal community members in Erode district in the Tamil Nadu Scheduled Tribes list.
The MP recently met Chief Minister M.K. Stalin at his office and handed over a petition. It said there were about 25,000 tribal people in the hills areas of Sathyamangalam and Anthiyur taluks who had been categorised under ‘other caste’ list while their counterparts in Dharmapuri, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Pudukottai, Salem, Namakkal, Villupuram, Cuddalore and Tiruchi and Perambalur had been listed as STs.
“When Coimbatore was bifurcated in 1979, Sathyamangalam was demarcated under Erode district and later Anthiyur taluk was formed in 2012. But tribal people in these two hills were not notified and were left out in the ST list,” it said.
The Tribal Research Centre in the Nilgiris had recommended to the State government many times to include Malayali tribal community members in the ST list.
Their counterparts in other districts were listed in Serial No. 25 of the ST list. Hence, the district should also be included in it, the petition urged.
The MP said the issue was raised in Parliament and was taken up with Arjun Munda, Minister of Tribal Affairs. The Minister had replied that proposals which had been recommended and justified by the State government would only be considered.
The MP, therefore, urged the Chief Minister to include the district under Serial No. 25 and submit a recommendation to the Central government after which a constitutional amendment would be made in Parliament, he said.
