• Sujal Pradhan, NET Correspondent, Sikkim 

In an attempt to secure tribal status for the 12 indigenous communities of Sikkim based on special Constitutional provisions under Article 371F and attain habitat rights, the Eleven + 1 Indigenous Ethnic Communities of Sikkim (EIECOS) on Wednesday conducted its first general meeting after its official registration.

During the meeting, the General Secretary of EIECOS – MK Pradhan asserted that “even though ORGI had earlier rejected our demand for tribal status now we will demand on the basis of Article 371.”

Pradhan further mentioned that key objective of the organization deals with forwarding the issues of realizing ST status for the 12 left-out indigenous ethnic communities of Sikkim tribe. He added about the presence of accountability while undergoing the entire process.

Its worthy to note that Office of the Registrar General (ORGI) has earlier issued several notifications to the state, mentioning that other left-out non tribal communities don’t fulfill the criteria to attain tribal status.

Meanwhile, a member of EIECOS – K N Sharma shared “this time we will approach politically, we agree there are institutions like ORGI but if we approach politically from ministry level then it will work and this time we will pitch on the basis of Article 371 F which is our special guarding provision and government has already passed a resolution. Now government has also decided to constitute a committee so we will work in coordination with state government and approach centre and we are hopeful that new approach will finally work-out.”