Durua community in Odisha’s Koraput district demands scheduled tribe status

Koraput, Sept 15:The Durua community in Odisha’s Koraput district demanded the status of Scheduled Tribe(ST) on Thursday. Following the Union government’s nod on approval of the same community in the neighbouring Chhattisgarh, over 40 thousand of people belonging to the Durua community, living in almost every part of the hilly areas of Koraput have staged a protest over the disparity of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. According to leaders of the Durua community, as many as 15 hill tribes have been impaneled in the ST list recently. The Durua community in Chhattisgarh which is termed as the Dhruba community has been declared as scheduled tribe. However, the people belonging to the same community in Odisha have been deprived of getting such approval. The long-standing demand of the tribal people has not been addressed by the Union government despite a number of protests for an ST status. On the other hand, they are availing all facilities like the ST people including the forest rights and ROR related benefits from the Odisha government. However, no certificates are being issued to them revealing that they belong to the scheduled tribe category. As a result, they are not getting all the facilities of the Union government and the state government. Expressing their disapproval over the Central Government’s anomaly, Meera Kumari Chalan said that they have raised the issue before the Prime Minister and President, but in vain. Similarly, Gandhu Durua, a community leader said that the Durua community urges the Centre to address the issue soon.