The Uttarakhand Government has asked the Central Government to include Nama Shudra, Pod, Pondra and Rai Sikh community in Uttarakhand’s list of scheduled castes. This information was given by the Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna after his meeting with Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Kumari Selja at the Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi on Friday.
During the meeting, Selja gave sanction to hold a mega camp in Uttarakhand for the welfare of the handicapped. Prosthetics for assistance of handicapped will also be distributed in the camp. The CM said that the State Government had submitted the proposal to include these castes in scheduled castes earlier itself. The CM had himself written a letter to the Central Government in the year 2012. Bahuguna said that in regard to Nama Shudra, Pod and Pondra several other demands have also been placed for which a committee will be set up.
The work of surveying the social and financial condition of the Rai Sikh community has already been handed over to the Doon University. He said that a survey on Nama Shudra, Pod and Pondra castes was done by the Pantnagar University in the year 2009 after which is was realised that it is important to give them the status of schedule caste to ensure their development. The CM assured that the inferences and facts of these surveys will be soon handed over to the Union Government. During the meeting, discussions were also held on relaxing the compensation norms for those who were handicapped during the June disaster. The CM said that the state’s Social Welfare department will soon submit a formal proposal for the same.
Talks on increasing the capability of NGOs working with the support of the Social Justice and Empowerment ministry in the state were also held during the meet. It was decided that the work of already existing NGOs would be reviewed and opportunities would be provided to new organisations. A meeting by the Union ministry will also be organised in Dehradun on December 7. Union Secretary Avanish Awasthi and Uttarakhand’s resident commissioner SD Sharma were also present in the meeting.