New Delhi, April 2: The Centre is treading cautiously while exploring the possibility of granting Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six communities of Assam to avoid litigations from frittering away its efforts.

Granting ST status to the Moran, Muttock, Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbongshi, Sootea and about 100 ethnic groups among tea garden labourers (known as tea tribes in Assam) is the principal demand of the pro-talks Ulfa, led by Arabinda Rajkhowa.

Union home and tribal affairs ministries had held a meeting this week on the issue but sources said the process was not simple.

Of the ethnic groups in the tea tribes, nearly 40 are recognised as Scheduled Tribes in other parts of India while the non-tribals among the tea tribes, distributed in about 50 groups, are categorised as Scheduled Caste or other backward classes (OBCs) in states outside Assam like Jharkhand and Odisha, according to S.D. Pando, one of the three members of a panel set up by the Assam government to write an ethnographic report on the tea tribes.

The population of these "non-tribals" is less than two lakh according to government estimates, compared to the substantially higher population of the "tribal" groups, officials said. Mundas, Oraons, Santhals and other tribes from present-day Jharkhand and Odisha were brought to Assam by the British to work in tea gardens. They are in the list of more other backward classes (MOBC) in Assam.

"We want that the groups which are enjoying ST, SC or OBC status in other states should at least be given that same status in Assam," said Pando, stressing that people on the MOBC list feel they are being discriminated against because there is no reservation for MOBCs.

Ethnographic reports from the Assam government on the six communities qualify them as "tribes". Sources said the reports claim that Morans and Muttocks have Mongoloid features, which are unique to Assam. They are found neither in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh nor elsewhere in India, the advocates for ST status argue.

The rules for granting ST status are being changed in order to grant the long-standing demand. But it is the post-approval problem that has many in the government worried.

On the scheduling of the six communities in the state, Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said while addressing an election rally in Kokrajhar today: "We are committed to granting Scheduled Tribe status to the six communities without affecting the interest of the existing ST communities in the state. We hope to bring about a solution soon."

In December last year, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court had set aside a government notification to include Jats in the central list.

"We want to go slowly but surely in order to avoid any such fallout once the communities are granted ST status," a source in the government said. Sources said the job has to be done by the tribal affairs ministry but the home ministry is also "applying its mind" since it is a matter raised by a militant outfit.