Bhatkal: Members of the Gonda community on Tuesday staged a silent procession in Bhatkal demanding issuance of Scheduled Tribe (ST) caste certificates and validity certificates to eligible members of the community.

 

The procession, led by Gonda Samaj Development Association taluk president Raghavendra S. Gonda, began at Koktibail and passed through key roads, including Bunder Road 2nd Cross and National Highway-66, before reaching the Mini Vidhana Soudha, where thousands of protesters staged a brief dharna.

 

As the Assistant Commissioner and Tahsildar were unavailable, a memorandum addressed to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was submitted through Shirastedar Praveen Kumar.

 

In the memorandum, the community stated that more than 15,000 members of the Gonda tribal community reside across Bhatkal taluk and remain economically, educationally, socially and politically backward. The memorandum stated that the Gonda community is concentrated mainly in Bhatkal taluk and extends to neighbouring Byndoor in Udupi district and Sagar in Shivamogga district.

 

The protesters said the Gonda tribe had been recognised under the Scheduled Tribes list in the 1950 Presidential Order and was also included in a 1956 Mysore government gazette notification relating to Uttara Kannada district.

 

Community members alleged that authorities were denying caste and validity certificates due to variations in the spelling of “Gonda” and “Gond” despite clarification orders issued by the Social Welfare Department stating that both referred to the same community.

 

The memorandum urged the government to conduct local verification in cases where school records contain errors or supporting documents are unavailable and to immediately begin the process of issuing caste and validity certificates to eligible applicants.

 

Women, youths and members of the community from several villages participated in the procession.