HP: Hatti community announces protest on December 16 to press for implementation of ST status law

Nahan (HP): An organisation of the Hatti community in Himachal Pradesh will organise a protest march on December 16 to press their demand for the implementation of a law giving the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the community, its leader announced on Thursday.

The protesters will assemble at the PWD rest house complex in Shillai in Sirmaur district and march to the office of the subdivisional magistrate (SDM) to submit a memorandum to the state government, Kendriya Hatti Samiti general secretary Kundan Singh Shastri told journalists at Poanta Sahib.

He invited the MLAs and MP of the area and political workers of all parties to join the protest march.

The Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order (Second Amendment) Act, 2023, granting the ST status to the Hatti community, was enacted four months ago, but the state government was not implementing it under pressure of a cabinet minister who has clearly shown his "anti-Hatti stance", Shastri said.

He said the community members, especially the youth, are agitated over the delay.

He called upon Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to intervene in the matter and implement the Hatti tribal status law immediately in the interest of Hatti youths who are being deprived of their right of reservation in ongoing recruitments.

On Wednesday evening, some members of the organisation met Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda and appraised him of the delay on the part of the state government in implementing the law, notified on August 4.

They submitted a representation to the minister demanding implementation of the Hatti tribal status law and told him about the negative attitude of the state government in this context.

Shastri said the delay in the law's implementation was affecting about three lakh people of 154 panchayats of Transgiri area of Sirmaur district.

The state government has written two letters to the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry seeking some clarifications regarding the law.

Shastri said the Union minister assured that the state government would get the clarifications within next two to three days.

The Hatti community members had held a protest in support of their demand in Nahan on December 5.