During a press conference at Manipur Press Club on Saturday, secretary, administration and organisation, MTU Mutum Churamani said that the union accepted the movement launched by some other organizations in connection with recognising Meitei or Meetei in schedule tribe list. But thinking that only launching movement would never achieve their wishes, the union had started researching about Meitei or Meetei community since 2018 to prepare the socio-economic status and ethnographic report on Meetei or Meitei.

The union primarily focused on these two things as it is the most important component to enlist Meetei/Meitei ST and in different instances, the concerned union ministry had urged to submit these reports, he added while appealing that the necessary document to be sent as recommendation to central government had already been submitted to state government. The union expected that the state government would surely take up necessary steps to recognise Meetei or Meitei in ST category at earliest, he said. 

He informed that in ‘The Ethnography of Meetei/Meitei of Manipur' consists of 26 chapters with 44 photos that show comprehensive history of the community. For Socio-Economic Status on Meetei/Meitei of Manipur, a compilation was made by taking reference of socio-economic status used at the time of enlisting Meetei or Meitei in OBC list in 1994, socio-economic report formulated by department of Geography of Imphal College in 2010 and socio-economic survey of Meetei or Meitei carried out by Manipur University after surveying 25 villages in January 2022.

Some of the experts like present vice-chancellor of Manipur Technical University and DM university also appreciated the two reports framed by them, he added.