IMPHAL, June 29: Inclusion of any new community into the Scheduled Tribes list would have to follow a long procedure of thorough and detailed study, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh told the House today.
He was replying to a question raised by Congress MLA Ng Bijoy regarding the demand for inclusion of the Meiteis in the ST list of India.
Further in his reply, he said though history says that the people of the hills and valley are brothers, but it needs to be properly discussed and studied.
The demand needs a detailed and deep discussion of the history and whether the Meiteis were previously in the Scheduled Tribes list, he said.
Meanwhile, Revenue minister Th Devendro replying to another questioned from Ng Bijoy as to whether there is a policy adopted for changing the entitlement of a village or locality in Manipur, he said there is no such policy adopted on the matter so far.
There are 2529 villages in the State according to the records of the Revenue department, he said.
He continued that there is a trend of both the hill and valley people leveling another name to localities and villages on their own instead of using the name in the revenue record.
Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh replying to another question raised by Andro MLA Th Shyamkumar said an official letter has been sent on January 30 to the Manipur Public Service Commission for the conduct of the DPC for the appointment of Manipur Finance Grade-III, however, the MPSC has not conveyed the reason for not holding the DPC till now.
During the Question hour today, the Chief Minister also said that for the cleaning of the drainage system of Imphal City, the government has ordered a de-silting machine and two silted containers at the estimated costs of Rs 11 crores and Rs 12 crores respectively.
However, there is no policy of the government for cleaning the drainage, he said.