Rajya Sabha today took up the Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 for consideration and passing.  The Bill seeks to amend the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) (Uttar Pradesh) Order, of 1967. It is intended to amend the SC Order to exclude the Gond community as a Scheduled Caste in Chandauli, Kushinagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, and Sant Ravidas Nagar districts of Uttar Pradesh and also amends the ST Order to recognize the community as ST in these four districts. Union Tribal Affairs Minister  Arjun Munda moved the Bill in the House.<br />''<br />''Initiating the discussion, Pramod Tiwari of Congress wanted to know why the inclusion of the community in the ST list is only limited to four districts and not to the entire State. He accused the Government of ignoring the interest of SC and ST communities and not doing enough for their welfare. Santanu Sen of TMC talked about the budgetary allocation for SC and ST communities. He highlighted works done by the West Bengal government for SC and ST welfare. Manoj Jha of RJD demanded that a reservation cap for OBC in the country should be raised and a caste-based census conducted.  <br />''<br />''Sumitra Balmik of BJP  said, the Narendra Modi Government has taken several measures including the construction of schools and giving scholarships for the development of tribals in the country.   She said the financial allocation for ST in 2013 -14  was four thousand crore rupees which has been increased to nine thousand crore rupees. Khiru Mahto of JD(U)  supported the Bill. Sandosh Kumar P of CPI said that the Government should seriously think about the status of tribals and downtrodden as to whether the exclusion or inclusion of certain communities alone will help their upliftment.<br />''<br />''Another BJP MP Samir Oraon also appreciated the government for bringing the Bill and said the steps taken by the Government are helping a lot in the all-around development of tribal communities.  M Shanmugam of DMK  appreciated the spirit of the legislation and supported it. Participating in the discussion  Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar of TDP  urged the Central Government to grant  Scheduled Tribe status to Valmiki and Boya communities. Dr L Hanumanthaiah of Congress said that budgetary allocations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes should be made available as per their population.  <br />''<br />''Several other MPs including Niranjan Bishi of BJD,  Subhash Chandra Bose of YSRCP, M Thambidurai of AIADMK, Brijlal, Sakaldeep Rajbhar, and Biplab Kumar Deb of  BJP  also spoke on the Bill.  Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda will reply to the discussion on the Bill tomorrow.<br />''<br />