By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Several NGOs including KSU, JSU,FKJGP, HNYF on Wednesday demanded immediate scrapping of the order where the state government has identified Marngar community as the scheduled tribes of the state.
A team comprising different NGOs on Wednesday met the Chief Secretary WMS Pariat and opposed the move of the State Government in identifying Marngar community at par with the local Khasis.
As per the NGOs, the Marngar community is not there in the list of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in Meghalaya, and no Marngar tribe appeared in the census 2001.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, KSU president Samuel Jyrwa said that the State Government must scrap the order at the earliest.He stated that the Chief Secretary has assured that an order would be issued in few days which would supercede the previous order identifying Marngar as the Scheduled tribes of the state.
“We are totally against classing Marngar as Khasis as they are different from Khasis in respect of culture, language and religion,” the NGO leaders asserted while speaking to media persons after meeting the Chief Secretary in his chamber here on Wednesday.
The issue came to the forefront when scheduled tribe certificates were issued by Ri-Bhoi district Deputy Commissioner Office to the Marngar community in a function which was attended by former Chief Minister DD Lapang.
It may be mentioned that the former Chief Minister DD Lapang had distributed the ST certificates to the Marngar community on the occasion.
As per Lapang, the Margnar community was recognized as scheduled tribe after being duly approved by the Political, Law and Social Welfare Department, adding the decision to identify Marngar as the ST was also based on the report received from the Hima Mylliem and from the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Ri-Bhoi District
