Give ST status to Vimukat Jatis, Parkash Singh Badal urges Centre

Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thursday sought Union minister for tribal affairs Jual Oram's personal intervention to ensure Schedule Tribes status for Vimukat Jatis.

In a letter to Oram, the chief minister said the state government had written to the Centre to include the Vimukat Jatis, including 33 sub-castes of the state, into ST category.

As desired by the tribal ministry, the government has sent two books of ethnographic study conducted by the Punjabi University, Patiala, to it in 2001 and 2012, respectively. However, Badal said no decision has been taken on this issue by the Centre yet.

He urged the Union minister take a decision in this regard at the earliest. Recently, a delegation of the Punjab State Vimukat Jatis Sangathan, led by its president Dr Tarsem Singh Maahla, had called on the chief minister and impressed upon him to take up the matter with the Centre. Badal had promised the visiting delegation that he would again take up the issue with the Union government, a government spokesperson said.