MADURAI
A group of people belonging to the Denotified Tribes Welfare Association attempted to gherao the house of Cooperation Minister ‘Sellur’ K. Raju here on Tuesday to press for their demand for ‘reclassifying’ 68 de-notified communities (DNC) as de-notified tribes (DNT).
The people, were, however, stopped tens of metres away from the Minister’s house in Sellur and detained by the police.
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B. Thavamani Devi, general secretary of the women’s wing of the association, alleged that the communities had been struggling since 1979 when the State government classified all the hitherto DNT communities as DNCs.
Pointing out that the communities were persecuted under the British rule through the Criminal Tribes Act, she said that various welfare measures given by the Central government, including increased reservation in jobs, were lost because of the State government’s classification as DNCs.
The protesters blamed the present State government for going back on its assurances to include all these communities in the DNT category.
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“In June, we held a conference in Karumathur in which two State Ministers assured to fulfil our demand within a month. However, there has been no updates since then,” Mr. Thavamani Devi alleged.
Stating that they understood the complications involved in implementation, the protesters said that they expected the government to be at least earnest and transparent in attempting to fulfil the demand.
The same group attempted to gherao the house of Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam’s house in Periyakulam few days ago.