The Meetei Tribe Union (MTU) on Wednesday drew attention of Governor La Ganesan to consider furnishing the demand for inclusion of Meetei community in the list ST, during his address in the ensuing third session of the 12th Manipur Assembly.
In this regard, MTU had already submitted a representation to the governor on January 2 and also forwarded the same to the chief minister, chief secretary and the secretary of Manipur Assembly.
MTU secretary (adm) M Churamani told the media at Manipur Press Club in Imphal that the Meetei community regretted putting the case of ‘Meetei tribe’ in the General category after Manipur being merged to the union of India.
He stressed that the restoration of tribal status of the Meetei community is highly needed as the situation of the Meetei community has worsened, and will become a great problem for the state if the ‘Meetei tribe’ is not included in the list of ST.
Churamani reminded that the MTU had already submitted the required documents such as latest socio-economic and ethnography reports of Meetei to all the authorities concerned along with more than 50 supporting references.
Besides, the Meetei community fulfills all the criteria to be enlisted in the ST list, he added.
He stressed the urgent need to keep the Meetei in the same status as other tribes of Northeast, citing that many official records books such as gazette, census and other authentic books mentioned that Meetei is a tribe.
Moreover, 90-95 per cent of the people considered the demand for inclusion of Meetei in ST list as morally suitable and genuine, he added.
