Distribute ST certificates to tribe or get suspended, CM warns DCs

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday cracked the whip on Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir and Kodagu districts, warning them that any unnecessary delay in issuing Scheduled Tribe (ST) caste certificates to Gond tribals under their jurisdiction will earn them a suspension.

He said that complaints regarding the same should be submitted to the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement (CRE). Gonds are the most populous ST community in the country numbering over two million and found in multiple states but concentrated in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.

The CM also pointed out that Betta Kurubas also fall under the ST category.

“Even after the submission of a report by the CRE cell, if there is an unnecessary delay in the inclusion of Gonds in Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir and Kodagu districts, then the district collectors will be suspended,” Siddaramaiah said.

The CM has on a few occasions pointed out that nomadic and semi-nomadic communities in Karnataka are spread across ST, Scheduled Caste (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories and had faced a relatively worse fate when it comes to service delivery because members don’t have access to caste certificates.