Agartala, May 26: The minority Darlong community in Tripura was in celebratory mood today following the Centre's decision to include it in the Scheduled Tribes list.

As a result, the community will now be entitled to a number of benefits, including reservation in jobs and education, scholarships after passing Class X, national overseas scholarship for studies, national fellowship, soft loans and free residential and food facilities in student hostels.

The Darlong community, settled mainly in hilly areas of Dhalai and North Tripura districts, are a sub-tribe of the Mizo community, and follow Christianity. The 25,000-strong community has made some progress in education and representation in government services because they study in schools run by Christian missionaries. "We have a separate language which is similar to Mizo, a distinctive culture and lifestyle. We have progressed in many respects but at the time of inclusion of ST communities in the Constitution we had missed the bus. We are recognised as STs by the state government and get all facilities. But our longstanding demand for inclusion in the central ST list has now been fulfilled," said K.S. Darlong a retired government officer.

He said as a small community, the Darlongs needed constitutional recognition and safeguard and the Centre's decision will help the community advance further.

With the inclusion of Darlongs, Tripura will have a total of 20 communities in the ST list. The earlier 19 communities had been included in the Constitution in 1950.

Chief executive member of the ADC, Radhacharan Debbarma, said it was a "welcome decision" which would help the community. "The Darlong population does not exceed 25,000 in a state of 37 lakh people. It is good that they have finally got recognition from the Centre. It will help them further," he said.

The Bengali Kopali community in Tripura has also demanded inclusion in the Scheduled Castes list. "The Kopalis are recognised as other backward classes (OBCs) but our long-standing demand has been inclusion in the SC list," said Kripamohan Sarkar, president of the Kopali Maha Panchayat, the apex body of the community spread over Sipahijala, Khowai and Unakoti districts.