Year- end-Review
Tribal welfare and development remained in focus during the year. A number of new initiatives were taken to bring the tribals into mainstream of development by allocating more funds to existing schemes and launching new schemes. These include launching of new scholarship scheme for the higher studies and coaching for the tribal students, more funds for development of tribal villages and Ashram schools and framing of rules to pave the way for legal rights of land to the tribals and forest dwellers.
100% utilization of funds for tribal welfare – As a result of constant monitoring and high priority to the tribal development projects, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs could utilize almost 100% of allocated budget for various programmes. A sum of Rs. 1648.14 crore was utilized till March 2007 against the revised budget allocations of Rs. 1652.68 crore. The Ministry held further review of programmes and schemes in State Ministers meeting in February. A mechanism to monitor implementation of the scheme and utilization of funds for tribal projects at the State level also was finalized in the meeting. The Ministry also had the meeting with CII and other organizations to identify areas in which their expertise could be utilized for improving the delivery of the schemes and programmes being implemented for the tribal peoples.
Enactment of Forest Rights Bill: After the enactment of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers Act 2006, to provide legal rights of the land to the tribal and other forest dwellers, the Ministry took up framing of rules for the implementation of the provisions of the Act. A technical support group consisted of reputed experts constituted in March this year held its meetings in Hyderabad, Pune, Ranchi, Shillong and New Delhi to know the views of States and the other concern. After these meetings, draft rules were notified on 19th June inviting comments from all concerns. Very soon the Act will come into the force and rules will be notified to undo the historical injustice done to the tribals by depriving them of their rights.
Infrastructure development in tribal areas – The Ministry provided 100% grant-in-aid to the State Governments to support specific schemes being run for the tribal population below the poverty line. Almost 70% of these funds were provided to Self Help Group (SHGs) for community-based employment and income generation in sectors such as agriculture, horticulture, watershed development, animal husbandry and other infrastructure. The Ministry started an exercise to review and modify long-term plans for Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) in 17 States. A multi-disciplinary clearance committee’s meeting was held on 2nd August for this purpose. The committee decided to prepare conservation-cum-development plans for all the States having PTG population and for Andaman and Nicobar islands.
A new scholarship scheme for ST students – The Ministry launched a new Central Sector Scholarship Scheme for higher education, providing upto Rs. 2 lakh, per annum to ST students as tuition fee besides reimbursement of other expenses. Launched in June this year, the scheme will enable meritorious ST students to pursue degree level courses in identified 127 institutes in the area of management, medicine, engineering etc. The student, who falls within the inter-se seniority list of top five meritorious ST students in the institutes, shall be eligible for scholarship covering full tuition fee and other dues up to the ceiling of Rs. 2.00 lakh per annum and Rs. 3.72 lakh per annum in the case of commercial pilot training. In addition, the scholarship also provides for (i) living expenses @ Rs. 2200/- per month (ii) books and stationery @ Rs. 3000/- per annum per student and (iii) cost of a latest computer system along with its accessories limited to Rs. 45000/- as one time assistance during the course. Total 635 scholarships will be provided to ST students per year.
Development of forest villages – During the current financial year, the Ministry allocated Rs. 150 crore and released Rs. 46.46 crore (up to 4.6.07) for the development of forest villages, which have mostly settlements of tribals. A numbers of schemes were taken up to accelerate the pace of development in these tribal villages. These schemes include provision of safe drinking water, primary health centers, approach roads and irrigation facilities.
More assistance for the tribal schools – With the objective of providing quality education to the tribal students, the Government increased the financial assistance from 30 lakh to 72.50 lakh for recurring expenditure for Eklavya Model Residential School meant for Scheduled Tribe boys and girls. Assistance was provided for 100 such residential schools in the country during the year.
NCJ/DT