Rajya Sabha passes bill to remove Bhogta caste from Supreme Court list

New Delhi, March 30 (PTI): The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday approved a bill that seeks to remove the Bhogta caste from the list of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and include certain communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes (STs) for Jharkhand.

The Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2022 was introduced in the Upper House of Parliament on February 7. It was passed by a voice vote on Wednesday.

Replying to the debate on the bill, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda said, “We will bring such amendments related to more states in the House. We have done (such amendments for) Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Now, it is being done in case of Uttar Pradesh, Tripura and Jharkhand. We are doing research on Odisha. We have completed the work in Chhattisgarh, but we are working on some observations given on that by the law ministry.”

He said the Centre is concerned about the development of tribal people and the aspirational district programme is a step in that direction as the main objective is to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

“Be it Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra or Gujarat, for all the states, the Centre is earnestly and seriously working to address the issues, while also assuring that the government will share the status of the demand for the inclusion of different communities from West Bengal, Goa and Tamil Nadu,” the minister said.

The bill also aims at helping people get more benefits from the provisions of reservation in education and government jobs.

The bill amends the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950.

The Scheduled Castes order specifies the castes, races and tribes deemed to be Scheduled Castes in various states and Union territories, while the Scheduled Tribes order specifies the same for tribes and tribal communities.

The bill amends the schedule to the Scheduled Tribes order to include the Deshwari, Ganjhu, Dautalbandi (Dwalbandi), Patbandi, Raut, Maajhia, Khairi (Kheri), Tamaria (Tamadia) and Puran communities in the Scheduled Tribes list of Jharkhand.

Further, the schedule to the Scheduled Castes order is being amended to omit the Bhogta community from the list of Scheduled Castes. The community is instead being included in the list of Scheduled Tribes in the state.

The government keeps amending the lists originally notified in 1950 based on the requests made by various states.

Participating in the discussion, Abir Ranjan Biswas of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supported the bill, saying the communities will get more benefits. He, however, lamented that no progress has been made on a proposal sent by the West Bengal government to the Centre for including 11 communities in the ST list.

Supporting the bill, Mamata Mohanta of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said the demand of the Kurmis, living in large numbers in West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha, for the inclusion of the community in the ST list has not been considered.

V Sivadasan of the CPI(M), while supporting the bill, said the mere inclusion of communities in the ST list will not help the cause of their development unless financial assistance is provided to them. He accused the Centre of trying to reduce the allotment amount and opportunities for the tribal communities.

Taking part in the discussion, M Thambidurai of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) sought the inclusion of the fishermen community of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the ST list as marine tribes.

Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged that the bill is not aimed at giving benefits to the Bhogta community. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is against giving political representation to the community, he alleged, adding that as a result of the bill, it will become very difficult for the community to have political representation.

Criticising the Centre for taking up the matter only with regard to Jharkhand, Chhaya Verma of the Congress said it should have taken up the demands for the inclusion of several communities in the ST list from different states together.

Samir Oraon of the BJP said there are several backward communities that have been demanding inclusion in the ST list and their demands should be considered.