Rajya Sabha clears Bill to remove Bhogta caste from SC list
New Delhi, Mar 30 (UNI): The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed a Bill, which seeks to remove the Bhogta caste from the list of Scheduled Castes (SC) and include certain other communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Jharkhand.
The Constitution (Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Order (Amendment) Bill 2022, introduced in the House on February 7, was cleared by a voice vote in the Upper House. Responding to the debate, Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda said the government will bring more such amendments related to more states in the House.
“We have brought such amendments for Arunachal Pradesh and Karnataka. It’s being done now for UP, Tripura and Jharkhand. We are discussing some observations given by the Law Ministry,” he added.
The minister expressed his gratitude to all Members in the Rajya Sabha for supporting the Bill. “The government has taken several measures to improve the conditions of Tribals in the country under the leadership of the Prime Minister, which led to qualitative changes in the their lives,” Munda said.
Drawing a comparison with the word done during the previous government, the Minister said that in 2013-2014, the number of Eklavya Schools were 167 and now 679 such schools have been sanctioned so far. Munda said the total number of functional Eklavya schools has gone up to 367 from 119.
“The schools are being built at block levels too. These schools were earlier built at the district levels but after the demands to construct such schools in tribal areas, the schools are being constructed at block level also,” he added.