School students belonging to hilly parts of Anthiyur and Sathyamangalam taluks on Monday assembled at the District Collectorate demanding Scheduled Tribe(ST) certificates.
They submitted a petition to the district administration stating that despite their socio-economic backwardness and the presence of clear guidelines for their categorisation as ST, their ‘Malayalee’ community has been denied the privilege. There were 20,000 ‘Malayalee’ community members in Kadambur area and 2,500 members in parts of Bargur hills. Their community members in neighbouring districts of Salem and Namakkal have been granted the ST certificates, they pointed out.
