The Sikkim government has set up a 12-member committee to conduct a study and make recommendations to the Centre for the inclusion of 12 communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes (STs).
Anthropological Survey of India Director BV Sharma will be the chairman of the committee, while JNU's senior professor Mahendra P Lama will be its vice chairman, according to a notification issued on Monday by Chief Secretary VB Pathak.
The committee will prepare a comprehensive ethnographic and anthropological report of the 12 left-out Sikkimese communities -- Bhujel, Gurung, Jogi, Kirat Khambu Rai, Kirat Dewan (Yakha), Khas (Chettri-Bahun) Mangar, Newar, Sanyashi, Sunuwar (Mukhia), Thami and Majhi, it said.
