Recruit more tribals in defence: CM to Antony

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today demanded creation of more job opportunities in the armed forces for tribal youths.

In a letter to Defence Minister AK Antony, Naveen said that more opportunities for jobs should be created to bring the tribal youths to the mainstream of society.

He suggested that more recruitment rallies of the Army should be organised in the tribal-dominated districts of the State.

Taking into account the physical attributes of the tribal youths, Naveen demanded that eligibility criteria on width of chest and height should also be relaxed.

Besides creating more employment opportunities for the tribal youths, this will help in the improvement of their socio-economic status, he said.

Road to end tribals’ woes

Coimbatore: Two thousand four hundred tribal people living in 600 houses and 13 tribal hamlets in and around Gopinari along the Kerala border in Periyanaickenpalayam range may have their long-pending demand met when the administration lays a 2.5-km stretch road connecting Singuli with Anaikatti.

District Collector P. Umanath, District Forest Officer I. Anwardeen and Range Officer N. Panneerselvam met the tribals on Friday and inspected the area where the road needs to be relaid. At present tribals living in Gopinari, Melbhavi, Alankandy, Alankandypudur, Kattasalai, Pattisalai, Colonypudur, Singuli, Moonukuttai, Arakadavu, Kuliyur, Kaaliyur and Senguttai have to travel 13 km to reach a hospital at Anaikatti run by a tribal welfare trust. They have to enter Kerala and then re-enter Tamil Nadu as the existing route passes through Kerala and cross two check posts to get emergency medical help.

The tribals have been demanding that the mud road between Singuli and Anaikatti be made a pucca road so that they could easily reach the hospital without entering Kerala. The new road will reduce the distance to 6 km.

Dr. Umanath inspected the area and as the proposed route was out of the reserve forest boundary, he has asked the Block Development Officer to prepare a proposal for laying a 2 to 2.5-km long road which will end the tribals’ ordeal.

Source: The Hindu

Tribal students given free books, but no teachers to teach

Ranchi: Tribal students in Jharkhand had been given books free of cost in two academic years, but the books remained untouched as there was no qualified teacher to teach them in tribal languages.

The government had in 2003 decided to introduce tribal languages for class I to V and printed books on the basis of manuscripts prepared by the Tribal Welfare Research Institute (TWRI) and distributed them among the students in 2004-05 and 2007-08 on non-returnable basis.

But the students could not utilise the books printed in five different tribal languages in the absence of qualified teachers to teach the languages, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pointed out in its report ending March 31, 2008.

Printing and distribution of books worth Rs 1.05 crore without the support teaching staff nor making the languages a part of the syllabus resulted in the wasteful expenditure, the report said.

Failure to appoint teachers for teaching tribal languages in particular scripts prior to free distribution of the books defeated the very purpose of promoting education in tribal languages, observed the CAG report.

Similarly, the National Programme for Nutritional Support to Primary Education, commonly known as Mid-day Meals (MDM) also suffered due to inflated enrollment figures, lack of infrastructural facilities, under-utilisation and Mismanagement of funds, according to the CAG report.

Revealing that Cooking fund of Rs 21.92 crore remained unutilised, the report said during the period 2004-08 lifting of food grains against the allotment was short by 24 per cent.

Twelve per cent to 34 percent children were not covered under MDM---this was despite inflated reporting of enrollment and expenditure reported on non-existent Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education, the report concluded.

Similarly, the National Programme for Nutritional Support to Primary Education, commonly known as Mid-day Meals (MDM) also suffered due to inflated enrollment figures, lack of infrastructural facilities, under-utilisation and Mismanagement of funds, according to the CAG report.

Revealing that Cooking fund of Rs 21.92 crore remained unutilised, the report said during the period 2004-08 lifting of food grains against the allotment was short by 24 per cent.

Twelve per cent to 34 percent children were not covered under MDM---this was despite inflated reporting of enrollment and expenditure reported on non-existent Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education, the report concluded.

Source: Zee News

Enhanced Allocations for Several Tribal Welfare Schemes

In the Budget proposals presented in the Lok Sabha for the year 2009-10, the allocations in respect of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been increased from Rs. 1984.16 crore (Revised Estimates of the previous financial year) to Rs. 3220.11 crore. In percentage terms, this indicates an increase of over 60 % over the previous year’s allocations.

There has been a marked increase in allocation for several schemes of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. For instance, allocation for the Schemes of Post Metric Scholarship, Book Bank and Upgradation of Merit of ST students has been enhanced from Rs. 194.90 crore (Revised Estimates – R.E.) to Rs. 217.85 crore. Similarly, the allocation for the scheme for Ashram Schools in Tribal Sub-Plan Areas has been increased from Rs. 30 crore (R.E.) to Rs. 41 crore.

The highest increase however is proposed under Central Assistance for State Plans under which Assistance for schemes under proviso (i) to Article 275 (1) of the Constitution has been enhanced from Rs. 392 crore (R.E.) to Rs. 1000 crore. Under this provision, grants are given to 22 TSP (Tribal Sub Plan) States and four Tribal Majority States for creating critical infrastructural projects in the Tribal Areas for the Welfare of STs and for raising the level of administration of Scheduled Areas in those States to that of the rest of the State, with a view to bringing them at par with the developed areas.

Source: Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Odisha moves to control tribal stir for land rights

Bhubaneswar/Malkangiri: In its efforts to cope with the growing agitation by tribal people in the backward districts of the state and prevent clashes between and tribal and non-tribal people, Odisha government has started initiating a series of measures to implement the laws pertaining to land rights in scheduled areas.

The efforts were aimed at preventing faceoff between tribals and non-tribals in the backward regions and also check the growth of the Maoists in the regions that were witnessing agitation by tribal people for land rights.

In districts such as Malkangiri, Rayagada, Koraput, Nawrangpur and Gajapati, the administration has started taking steps to resolve various types of land disputes, including the cases where land belonging to tribal families had been taken away by non-tribal people.

In Malkangiri district, the administration has decided to start a campaign from Monday to circulate a form among the tribal people and collect information about land rights.

Once the administration gathers data on the grievances of tribal families, particularly those who were landless and or whose land had been taken over by non-tribal people, immediate steps would be taken to solve the issues in question, according a senior administration official.

Thousands of landless families had settled over government land of various categories, including forest land, in Malkangiri and other districts. These people were facing harassment at the hands of the staff of different government departments from time to time.

The state government has also approached the High Court seeking vacation of stay on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act. Once the court vacates the stay, it is believed that the government will be able to grant land right to over 20000 families in Narayanpatna Block of Koraput district alone.

Meanwhile, the tribal agitation for land rights in Narayanpatna has started spreading to other parts of the district with tribal people forcibly cultivating the land belonging to non-tribals. Such incidents have already taken place in Narayanpatna, Bandhugaon and Palur areas of Koraput.

The state government that had been sleeping over the frequent demand of tribal people for land rights for the past several years when the situation went out of its control in Narayanpatna recently.

Source: KalingaTimes