Tribes continue to remain out of quota map in Tamil Nadu

The state is unable to fill the ST reservations in government departments and education institutions as tribes continue to remain deep inside the jungles and in-case if they step out it is the bureaucracy that plays spoilsport with the reservation policies.  A recent RTI petition filed by veterinarian M Balaji revealed that the TN veterinary and animal sciences university (Tanuvas) has not filled any faculty under the ST reservation category for the past ten years.  The RTI petition available with this newspaper revealed that there are 832 posts available with Tanuvas of which 590 posts are filled as per the reservation policies. 

But though there are seats allocated for tribes filling the vacancies is an issue. There are more than 40 departments in Tanuvas but not a single post is filled for tribes under the reservation category, Balaji, the RTI petitioner said.

According to C Siranjeevi, TN state president, Akil Bharathiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad the state had cancelled the powers of tahsildar to issue ST certificates in the early ’90s and now RDOs are giving certificates. 

The shortage of anthropologist and bureaucracy had created a backlog of more than 4000 applications pending before the state ST certification. Field enquires during corona is also another issue affecting the ST certification for ST students and youngsters Siranjeevi said.  The worst case is that around 175 retired government employees are awaiting their pension benefits as the certification process is put on hold by the state scrutiny committee. 

For every problem the tribals are forced to seek legal remedy, Siranjeevi said adding that the issue was recently taken up before the parliamentary committee and it has ordered the government departments clear the backlog by November 2020. “There are several fake cases related to SC and ST certifications and this at times affects the genuine tribes. Further, the government has to allocate more funds for the State tribal departments to ensure that their grievances are addressed early,” said a TN government official when contacted.