Odisha villagers meet Oram, seek tribal status

Bhubaneswar, July 25 (IANS) A Jhodia community delegation from Odisha Friday submitted a memorandum to union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram in New Delhi, seeking tribal status.

Community president Makaranda Muduli said the minister assured the delegation that the Jhodia community will be included in the Scheduled Tribes list in six months' time.

The people of Jhodia community who claim to be a sub-group of Paroja tribe have been demanding Scheduled Tribe status for long.

More than 20,000 Jhodia families living in the state's Rayagada district have observed shutdown and boycotted the census and local and general elections to press their demand.

Muduli said non-inclusion of their names in the Scheduled Tribes list was depriving them of the benefits provided by the government to tribal people.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had also written to the central government for inclusion of the Jhodia community in the Scheduled Tribes list, he said.