Itanagar, Sep. 6 (PTI): The Arunachal Pradesh government will cancel all Scheduled Tribe certificates earlier issued to offsprings of tribal women married to non-tribals after screening of the cases by a committee, a state minister said in the assembly on Tuesday.
Responding to a question by senior Congress MLA Lombo Tayeng, Social Justice, Empowerment, and Tribal Affairs (SJETA) Minister Alo Libang said the government had notified the Arunachal Pradesh Schedule tribe Certificate Issuance guidelines on August 1 last, which has provisions for cancellation, impounding, or revocation of ST certificates issued to ineligible persons.
Under the guidelines, if the authority issuing the document is satisfied that an ST certificate has been obtained by any person by furnishing false information or by misrepresenting any fact, or suppressing any material information, it may cancel, impound or revoke the certificate, Libang said.
So far nine disputed cases of issuance of ST certificates have been placed before the scrutiny committee, which had disposed of five cases.
Out of the remaining four, one pertains to issuance of ST certificate allegedly in respect of an offspring of a tribal woman married to a non-tribal. The hearing of these cases is under process, the minister said.
The deputy commissioners concerned have been accordingly directed to give their comments after which the committee would take appropriate decisions.
Responding to a supplementary by Tayeng for fixing a cut-off year for cancellation of ST certificates, Libang assured the legislators that the matter would be discussed with all the members of the House.
The ST certificate issue has rocked the state in recent times with many organisations including the All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union (AAPSU) staging protests in various parts of the state.