Addressing the issue of giving Scheduled Tribes (ST) status to the various marginalized communities in the Assam Assembly, state education minister Ranoj Pegu on Monday said that final decision in the matter will come from the Centre.

Speaking at the ongoing autumn session of the Assam Assembly, Pegu informed that there a total of 98 sub-branches of the tea tribes in the state.

Of them, a grouping of 36 such sub-branches has been prepared for granting the status of scheduled tribes, the education minister told the Assembly.

He further said that issue of providing scheduled tribe status to six ethnic groups of Assam is under consideration by the Centre.

Moreover, Pegu informed that a package of Rs 500 crores has been set up for the development of the concerned communities with every community receiving Rs 25 crore packages.

The Assam cabinet minister also said that development and autonomous council have been formed in this regard.

However, the final decision on the granting of scheduled tribe status will rest with the Centre, added Pegu.

It may be noted that earlier this month, the Centre had decided on including various communities in the list of ST of five states namely Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was welcomed warmly by the states concerned.

On the other hand, the Matak Youth Students’ Council and Students’ Union had staged a protest following the Centre’s decision, for not including communities from Assam in the Centre’s revised lists of ST.