Bhopal, Feb 5: Union Tribal Affairs Ministry Secretary Gautam Buddh Mukherjee has given the assurance that utmost care would be given to the proposal sent by the state government for tribal development. The state government officers had a detailed discussion over these proposals with Mukherjee and underlined the need for their early clearance. The Union government secretary not only praised the steps taken by Madhya Pradesh government for implementing Forest Rights Act but also telephoned the Delhi-based officers to download information about it from state's web site and utilise it in preparing a model for implementation.

State's Principal Secretary Tribal Welfare OP Rawat said that during the last two financial years the funds allocated by the Union government for development of forest villages under Tribal Sub-Plan in three phases has been fully utilised. Details about it were also presented. During the current financial year Rs 134 crore has been allocated for development of 864 forest villages against which Centre has released Rs 69 crore till September 2007.

On behalf of the state government, Commissioner Tribal Development Shri Jaideep Govind also underlined another fact that the spread of education among tribal communities is lagging behind in comparison to scheduled castes. He cited the example of post-metric stipends approved during the year 2007-08. He drew attention towards the fact that tribal population in the state is 23 percent while scheduled caste and backward class form 16 and 52 percent of the population. But Rs 16 crore post-metric stipends have been approved for scheduled tribes, Rs 60 crore for scheduled castes and Rs 130 crore stipends have been sanctioned for backward class.

It was also pleaded on behalf of the state government that the Union government should provide cent percent grant for tribal girls hostels in the state. At present Union and state government share 50 percent each grant. It was also urged that the Centre should approve Special Girls Eklavya Schools. Similarly, appeal was made to give clearance to other pending proposals including filling the posts of science, maths and English teachers in tribal-predominant districts.

Mukherjee assured that the demands and proposals of the state government would be given due attention and importance. High level deliberations would be made on these proposals soon. He also termed as effective the steps being undertaken by the state government for implementing Forest Rights Act. The Union Secretary was informed that Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan is in favour of early implementation of this Act and for this purpose a state-level monitoring committee has been established while the process of establishing district and division level committee is under progress.

The Union Secretary was also informed that training has been imparted to master trainers at and district level and the master trainers to nodal officers who are conducting village meetings. Importantly, residents of forest villagers have been informed about the Forest Rights Act and all of its provisions. For this purpose copies of the Act and Rue were printed and supplied to villages in large numbers. Large-scale awareness campaign is also being undertaken in this connection.

Union government secretary Mukherjee gave the assurance to take an early decision after making the assessment. He also said that more and more tribal people should be connected with agriculture-based occupations. He was also of the view that the design and layout plan for the construction of Model Tribal Hostels (Adarsh Adivasi Chhatrawas) buildings should be got prepared by education experts so that all the requirements and facilities can be available in an integrated way.

He also laid emphasis on adopting the policy of incentive and fine for ensuring maximum attendance in the school by the teachers posted at the tribal hostels. He suggested that there must be liberal permission to the students to use computers so that they can learn to handle computer easily and rapidly. He also underlined the need to undertake infrastructure woks on priority basis in tribal areas.

On this occasion, projection was also made of various works being undertaken for development of forest villages by the Forest Department. Those who took part in the discussion also included Director Tribal Areas Development Schemes Ms Rashmi Arun Singh, managing director Tribal Finance and Development Corporation Raghuvir Shrivastava, managing director Vanya, Shriram Tiwari, additional commissioner Tribal Development RS Khare and JS Netam.