Home Minister Shivraj Patil has virtually ruled out giving Scheduled Tribe status to the protesting adivasi people in Assam. Quoting from observations of the Registrar General of India and the Backward Class Commission, Patil said, “The local committee and RGI have said back in 1965 that they can only be granted Backward status and not ST status as many of these tribes have lost their tribal characteristics in their present surroundings.”
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