SHILLONG: Traditional heads from Nongthymmai Pyllun met the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma with a demand to amend the list of Scheduled Tribes/ Scheduled Castes in the Presidential order, 1950 and to re-examine on the reservation benefit of OBC, STs and SCs who have migrated from other states as per the law settled by the Supreme Court of India.
The president of Synjuk ki Nongsynshar shnong ka Nongthymmai Pyllun, B. Nari asserted that the Presidential order, 1950 is adopted from the state of Assam in which the entire list of STs as recognised by the state of Assam was copied when Meghalaya attained statehood.
He told reporters on Thursday, “This has been overlooked when Meghalaya got its statehood and this has not been revisited by the state government for the last 46 years.”
The states in the North East have apprised the Center for the amendment of the said Presidential order. He pointed out that there were some other tribes listed in the Presidential order 1950 which are not permanent residents of the state of Meghalaya.
He asserted that such tribes only migrated from other states but such tribes had taken away the benefits which should have been enjoyed by the indigenous tribes of the state of Meghalaya such as in the field of employment, land transfer and trade.
Nari referred to the Supreme Court judgment on August 30, 2018 which stated that a person belonging to a SC/ST in one state cannot be deemed to be an SC/ST person in relation to any other state to which the person migrates for the purpose of employment or education.
According to him, when a Schedule Caste or Tribe migrates, he does not and cannot carry any special rights or privileges attributed to him or granted to him in the original state specified for that state or area or part thereof.
The Synjuk has requested the government to act and to take up the matter with the Center to amend the list of Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste in the Presidential order applicable in the state of Meghalaya.
They asked the government to adopt a concrete methodology and issue guidelines to detect the Scheduled Tribes who migrate from other states so that the rights of the indigenous tribes of Meghalaya would not be affected.
Nari said, “There is a need to re-look and revisit the Presidential Order, 1950. The CM said he would examine the memorandum submitted to him.”