BJP State President and MP Suresh Kashyap hailed the approval granted by the Union cabinet for the inclusion of the Hatti community of the Trans-Giri area of Sirmaur district in Himachal Pradesh in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.

Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, Kashyap said that the five-decade struggle of the Hatti community has borne fruits with the union cabinet acceding to the demand.

The Trans-Giri area had been demanding ST status ever since the  Jaunsar-Bhawar which was once a part of Sirmaur now in Uttrakhand was accorded tribal status in 1967, he said, adding that the people of adjacent Jaunsar-Bawar region having similar culture, traditions and interrelationship.

He said that successive BJP governments and the leaders of the party had been raising the demand continuously with the Centre.

“Former Chief Minister’s Shanta Kumar, Prem Kumar Dhumal and the incumbent CM Jai Ram Thakur, MP Virender Kashyap, MLA Reena Kashyap, former MLA Baldev Tomar had strived hard to get the demand fulfilled,” he said.

“The state government sent its proposal to the central government in May 2005, but it was rejected. After this the Congress government of the state did nothing. When the BJP government came into power in Himachal and Prem Kumar Dhumal became the Chief Minister, then the efforts started again. In August 2011, work began on the preparation of a new report on the culture and condition of the Hatti community,” said he.

Expressing gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kashyap gave special credit to CM Jai Ram Thakur for pushing it hard with the Central leadership.

He said that Thakur had specially contributed to lend impetus to around fifty-years old demand of the people of the area and this decision of the union cabinet will go a long way to benefit the Hatti community in future.

Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur raised this matter with the Union Home Minister and Union Tribal Affairs Minister on 4 August 2018. A fresh ethnographic proposal was sought from the Center on this subject. The Himachal government prepared a new ethnographic proposal and sent it to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

The Chief Minister once again sent a letter to the Union Home Minister on March 10, 2022, urging him to direct the Registrar of India to consider the proposal of granting ST status to the Hati community.

“The Chief Minister also met the Union Home Minister on 11 March 2022 in this regard. After this, in April 2022, the Registrar General of India agreed to include the Hatti community living in the Trans-Giri area in the Scheduled Tribes, and today the Union Cabinet approved the Scheduled Tribe status to the Hati community living in the Trans-Giri area,” he said.

He claimed that about 3.5 lakh people will be benefited by this decision. “With the status of the tribal area, people here will get the benefit of special schemes and will get additional funds, which will help in increasing the pace of development in this backward area,” said Kashyap.