NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, December 18, unanimously passed a bill for recognising the Gond community hailing from 4 districts of Uttar Pradesh as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) after excluding them from the Scheduled Castes (SC) list.

The Upper House approved a bill that amends the Scheduled Caste Order to recognise the Gond Community as a Scheduled Tribe in the four Uttar Pradesh districts of Chandauli, Kushinagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, and Sant Ravidas Nagar. The Gond Community was earlier classified as a Scheduled Caste in these districts.

Responding to the debate for the bill, the tribal affairs Minister Arjun Munda slammed the previous governments' stand on the Scheduled Tribes issue, and said, "the people opposed the first tribal Presidential candidate and should have backed it." Manoj Jha of the RJD raised a point of order, and a representative of the CPI(M) asked the chair to instruct the minister to limit his remarks to that matter.

The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) (Uttar Pradesh) Order, 1967 (ST Order) and the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 (SC Order) with regard to Uttar Pradesh were intended to be amended by the Bill, which was previously passed by the Lok Sabha.

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