Himachal CM: Will take up ST tag issue of Trans-Giri area with Centre

Advertisement

Shimla, March 10

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur today said that the state government would again take up with the Central Government the issue of the grant of the Scheduled Tribe status for the Trans-Giri area of Sirmaur district.

50 pc ST population needed: Minister

For the Trans-Giri area to be declared as a Scheduled Area, the Scheduled Tribes population there must be more than 50 per cent, which is only 0.20 per cent, as per the Census 2011. — Ram Lal Markanda, Tribal development minister

Thakur was replying to a question asked by Harshwardhan Chauhan and Vinay Kumar during the Question Hour in the Vidhan Sabha. “My government is favourably inclined towards the demand and efforts are being made to have the ST status for this area and its people,” he said.

He said that if the Jaunsar Bhabar area of Uttarakhand could be granted the ST status, why the Trans-Giri area, which was contiguous and has similar traditions, being ignored. He added that he had earlier taken up the issue with Rajnath Singh, when he was Home Minister.

Chauhan urged the Chief Minister to take up the issue with the Centre strongly as the Trans-Giri area fulfilled all parameters and the report prepared by the Tribal Institute of HP University was also favourable. “Successive governments have pleaded the case but the long-pending demand remains unfulfilled,” he said.

“An ethnographic proposal for the inclusion of the Hattee community on the ST list of the state has been prepared and submitted to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the matter is pending,” said Ram Lal Markanda, Tribal Development Minister .

Leader of th Opposition Mukesh Agnihotri asked the government about the status of the 69 national highways (NHs) announced just before the 2017 Assembly elections. The Chief Minister said that there had been a delay in the preparation of DPRs due to a change in the guidelines. “The DPRs of 25 national highways have been prepared but now only nine have been shortlisted and efforts are on get the nod from the Central Government to start the work on them,” said Thakur.

He countered Congress accusation that the BJP had come to power by promising the construction of the 69 national highways saying, “The party won the elections not just by announcing the 69 highways but because of several other factors”.

In a written reply to a question asked by Rajinder Rana on undertaking commercial cultivation of cannabis, the government said a proposal was pending but neither any specific areas had been identified nor any NGO had come forward for it.