Summary:
At a time when upper caste-OBC groups in Madhya Pradesh are protesting against the SC/ST Act, a tribal group has said it will contest the year-end assembly elections to form a tribal government in the state. Also, many leaders of JAYS have left it due to an “internal rift” in the tribal group, a BJP leader said on condition of anonymity. The Fifth Schedule under Article 244 (1) of the Constitution defines scheduled areas. Six years on, it has around 15 lakh members in 10 states, including Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, Hiralal Alawa, the founder of JAYS, claimed. The JAYS had recently organized a Mahapanchayat at Manawar in Dhar district “where around 50,000 tribal people protested against the Madhya Pradesh government’s decision to give 32 Adivasi villages to UltraTech..