Sikkim CM Chamling reaffirms demand for tribal status to state

Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling has raked up demand for grant of tribal status to the Himalayan state saying he has done everything in his capacity and it was now up to the Centre to decide on it.

"We have been demanding tribal status for Sikkim as all indigenous communities living in our state will enjoy equal rights and privileges," he said at a book release function on Saturday.` The chief minister said he had made repeated attempts to push the case with the Centre.

"As soon as our first government was formed in 1994, I had met the then Prime Minister Late PV Narsimha Rao and placed before him the demand for grant of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the 13 left out communities, which also included the Limboo and Tamang (LT) communities," Chamling recalled.

The Late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government in 2002 granted Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to Limboo and Tamang communities, he said and rued that the demand for according ST status to 11 remaining communities has been pending since then.

Chamling, who is on the verge of completing the fifth consecutive term in power, said that his government has left no stone unturned in the endeavour to secure this long-pending demand. He, however, expressed helplessness to deliver the ST status for 11 left out communities of Sikkim on his own as the matter falls in the domain of the central government.

Chamling, at the same time, said that his government has brought all these 11 communities under the ambit of the reservation system by going out of the way to grant Other Backward Caste (OBC) status to these communities.

He urged the 11 communities to continue to put up a strong case for grant of tribal status which his government will pursue with the Centre for a concrete decision like it has done to get an exemption from income tax to indigenous people.