SHIMLA: More than 14 crore tribe’s men scattered across the country, will boycott the ensuring Lok Sabha poll in protest against the failure of the (Center and various ¢stale governments: to take steps to settle their longstanding demands.
Addressing a press conference here Mr. MS. Negi, president of the All ‘India Tribes and Minorities Front, said that as many as 137 organizations of tribal people which met at ‘Agra on March 23, had endorsed the call of the front for boycotting the election. The tribal people had taken this extreme decision which would affect voting in 165 seats to highlight their grievances during the poll.
Referring to the main unresolved issues concerning the tribal people, of total 14 crore tribal people only 7.5 crore had been given the tribal status. There was a strong case for the inclusion of Tamang tribe in Sikhism and Darjeeling, Gawara in Maharashtra, Gaddis and Gujjars of merged areas in Himachal Pradesh, and Gujjars of ‘Uttar Pradesh but the Center had been delaying a decision on the issue for no reason.
He said even the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were being denied reservation in jobs, He alleged that since 1990 over 90,000 posts in the central government and 1.45 lakh posts in various states were reserved ‘without completing the formalities.
Mr. Negi said that the Rs 1800 crore “gwala scam” in Bihar was only the “tip of the iceberg,” Thousands of crores of rupees meant for the development of tribal areas had been either swindled by officials or diverted for other purposes by various governments. The front had demanded probe by the CBI into the utilization of tribal funds all over the country.
The front, he said, was concerned over the decision of the government not to hold the assembly election along with the Lok Sabha poll. The move was motivated by partisan consideration for narrow poll gains.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 3, 1996
