During the year 2005-06, the Ministry had adopted a new decentralised procedure for receipt, identification, scrutiny and sanction of proposals from NGOs under the schemes of the Ministry. This was done with an aim to make the schemes more objective and transparent with larger involvement of States to ensure correlation of NGOs and their projects with ground situation/realities.
In the new decentralised procedure, the States are required to first identify the geographical pockets in far-flung under-served tribal areas along with services in which such areas are deficient, such as education, health, drinking water, etc. The lists of under-served tribal areas along with the services found to be deficient are also required to be communicated to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. As per the new guidelines the project proposals having their activities in such deficient tribal areas should alone be recommended and duly prioritised to accommodate within the funds allocated to the State. At the beginning of the financial year, all the States are intimated about their tentative fund allocation in order to send the recommendations as soon as possible.
In the above context as per the revised guidelines, the States are also required to get all the projects examined through field functionaries and determine their necessity in the thrust sectors identified by each State for NGO intervention. In order to do such examination, the State Committee would get the proposals of the NGOs inspected through the District authorities as per the detailed inspection format provided by the Ministry. Only after getting the inspection report from the field functionaries at the District level, the State Committee would examine the cases for further recommendation.
In order to implement the decentralised procedure in a more transparent manner and to involve the States as well as the District authorities, it has been decided to constitute a State Committee for Supporting Voluntary Effort at the State level to be chaired by Principal Secretary/Secretary to the State looking after tribal welfare with the following composition:
1.Principal Secretary/Secretary of the Department looking after the tribal Chairman
2.Secretary, Department of Rural Development in the State or his representative Member
3.Secretary, Department of Agriculture in the State or his representative Member
4.Secretary, Department of Health in the State or his representative Member
5.Three Experts/reputed NGOs from the States to be nominated by the Chairman Member
6.Commissioner/Director, Tribal Welfare of the State or Director, Tribal Research Institute Member-Secretary
The Ministry has issued the detailed guidelines to all the States on June 2, 2005. The State governments of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal and West Bengal have already constituted the State Level Committees and except for Jammu & Kashmir and Sikkim, all other States have already sent their State Level Committee recommendations.
The new decentralised procedure has infused more transparency in the system by devolving more powers to the States for scrutinising, identifying and recommending the most eligible cases for NGO intervention after getting them monitored and evaluated by the District level functionaries.
Tribal Sub Plan Strategy
The Tribal Sub Plan was adopted for the first time at the beginning of the V Five Year Plan in 1974-95 and continues till date. It applies to 21 States and 2 Union Territories where Scheduled Tribes constitute a sizeable population. However, the TSP allocations were not pursued seriously by the line Ministries and State governments in letter and spirit and consequently resources have not been utilised in a focussed manner under a tribal centric policy to benefit the target group.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs proactively advocates for pooling of resources to be earmarked under TSP component in each of the State. The Planning Commission had constituted a Sub Group of the Task Force on Development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the Chairpersonship of Secretary (Tribal Affairs). The report of the Sub Group was accepted by the Planning Commission’s main Task Force. Due to the constant persuasions of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Planning Commission have now issued orders to this effect directing the States to earmark funds for TSP from total State Plan outlay at least in the proportion of the ST population to the total population of the State/UT. As per guidelines issued by the Planning Commission, the Tribal Sub Plan funds are to be non-divertible and non-lapsable. The guidelines also provide that the Tribal Welfare Departments will be the nodal Departments for the formulation and implementation of the Tribal Sub Plan in the States. If the States follow the guidelines, approximately an amount of Rs. 15,161.85 crore would become available for spending under Tribal Sub Plan.
The Ministry is also advocating institutionalising similar mechanism for Central Ministries, which will ensure a flow of approximately Rs. 9,973.76 crore under Plan and Rs. 1,960 crore under Non Plan, during 2006-07 as 8 per cent of their budget.
Development of Forest Village
There are around 3,000 forest villages in the country. Forest villages are those villages, which were set up in remote and inaccessible forest areas during the British period with a view to providing uninterrupted manpower for forestry operations. These villages are well recorded in the records of State Forest Departments. Many of these villages, despite their long existence, are, even today, not revenue villages and the land is recorded as forest land, covered under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Consequently, the tribals inhabiting the forest villages do not get the benefit of various welfare schemes, due to non-availability of title of land in their favour, and also because, in many cases, the jurisdiction of the block and revenue authorities does not cover forest villages. The condition of the tribals living in the forest villages is, therefore, very precarious.
After the enactment of the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, State governments faced problems in taking up non-forestry developmental activities relating to infrastructure for improving socio-economic conditions of people living in the villages located in the forests areas. This matter was taken up with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on various issues of tribal-forest interface, including eviction drive in States leading to harassment of tribal community.
At the instance of this Ministry, the Ministry of Environment & Forests has come out in January 2005, with a one-time general approval under Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 allowing diversion of forest lands for providing the basic and essential developmental facilities to the tribal/ forest villages such as schools, dispensary/ hospital, electric and communication lines, drinking water, water/rainwater harvesting structures, minor irrigation canal, non-conventional sources of energy, skill up-gradation/ vocational training centres, power sub-stations, communication posts and police establishments like police stations/ outposts/ border outposts/ watch towers, in sensitive areas (identified by Ministry of Home Affairs).
The Ministry has urged all the State governments, to use this opportunity for comprehensive planning and implementation of work to improve the infrastructure in the tribal villages so as they too have excellent infrastructure facilities and substantially improved access to basic services, viz. healthcare, education, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, irrigation, markets, livelihood, etc.
Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship
The UPA Government, through its Common Minimum Programme, focuses on creating facilities which may encourage ST students to undergo higher education like M.Phil and Ph.D etc., which will help them in getting jobs requiring higher educational qualifications like those of lecturers in universities/colleges and similar other assignments. In compliance thereof, a new scheme entitled Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship Scheme, to provide fellowships for M.Phil and Ph.D courses for ST students, was conceived by the Ministry. The scheme has been approved by the Cabinet for implementation from the financial year 2005-06 through the University Grants Commission. An amount of Rs. 7.95 crore has already been released during the year 2005-06 to give fellowships to approximately 667 ST students.
Details of the initiatives taken by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs towards the development of the Scheduled Tribes during the two year period of UPA Government, which are still in the process of advance stage of completion
The Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005
The tenurial and access rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes who, are the poorest of the poor, and who had been living in their ancestral habitat for ages in symbiotic relationship with the ecosystem, had not been adequately recognised so far due to faulty reservation processes in the past, resulting in historical injustice to these forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes. The Hon’ble Prime Minister had accordingly mandated this Ministry on January 19, 2005, to formulate a comprehensive Central legislation to redress this historical injustice done to the tribal communities and for clear assertion of their legal rights on land. As per this mandate, the Ministry drafted a Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005 in a record time and introduced the said Bill in the Lok Sabha on December 13, 2005.
Some of the salient features of the Bill are given below:
Ø Scheduled Tribes living in forests for generations are integral to very survival and sustainability of Forests and are inseparable with the eco-system, including wildlife, and cannot survive isolation is recognised by the Bill.
Ø Rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes, which were not recognized during the process of consolidation of Forests since colonial period as well as in Independent India, will be recognised legally.
Ø With the conferment of right to hold and live in the forests, they will not be looked upon as “encroachers of forest lands” and the threat of eviction, which looms large in their psyche, will be removed.
Ø With the conferment of ownership rights over the Minor Forest Produce (MFP) to FDSTs the FDSTs, the major sources of the exploitation of the STs will be taken care of.
Ø Even fruits of Development Schemes, such as Indira Awas Yojana, which have been denied so far will be available to FDSTs.
Ø The Bill proposes to achieve the twin objective of environmental conservation and justice to the STs by being in tune with and providing for more stringent checks and balances than the existing Legislative/Policy frame of the Ministry of Environment & Forests.
This Bill represents a major paradigm shift in approach towards addressing the concerns for providing tenurial security, livelihood and traditional rights to the forest dwelling scheduled tribes who have been living in forests for generations without a legal protection.
The introduction of the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005 in Parliament is thus an historic step to recognise the following rights:
Ø Tenurial security providing a great relief against the physical and psychological alienation of land, the scheduled tribes belong to.
Ø Livelihood in terms of the subsistence agriculture on ‘as is where is basis’ and the ownership of MFP including rights to collect, trade and process the same.
Ø Traditional and customary rights.
The Bill also casts upon the forest dwelling tribal communities the responsibilities of protection, conservation and regeneration of forests and will result in their greater participation in the efforts of the Government in this direction.
The Bill, when enacted, would be applicable to all the States/UTs, except Jammu & Kashmir, and would benefit forest dwelling scheduled tribes in all these States/UTs.
The Bill has been referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament for examination. The Joint Committee is expected to submit its report by May 23, 2006.
Programmes for Minor Irrigation Facilities on Tribal Lands
In consonance with the commitment made by the UPA Government in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) and considering that STs usually reside in remote, far flung and often inaccessible areas with undulating terrain where irrigation facilities are poor, the Ministry initiated a special project to provide 100 per cent financial assistance to States for taking up minor irrigation scheme for tribal people. Accordingly, during the year 2005-06, at the instance of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Planning Commission had made an allocation of Rs.50 crore over and above Rs.330 crore under the Article 275 (1) of the Constitution in the budget (2005-06) of the Ministry exclusively for providing minor irrigation facilities in the tribal areas of the States.
Rajiv Gandhi Girls’ Hostel Complex for North East
Recognising the need for adequate hostel facilities for Scheduled Tribe girls from the North East studying in Delhi University and its affiliated colleges, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) decided to construct a 500 seated Girls’ Hostel in the Delhi University campus. The building and associate infrastructure will be jointly funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Ministry of DONER. The proposed hostel will be for ST and other girl students from the North East in the ratio of 40:60, respectively. The foundation stone of the proposed Hostel, which has been named the Rajiv Gandhi Girls’ Hostel Complex for the North East was laid on January 1, 2006. The seats for ST girls in the proposed Hostel will be in addition to 7.5 per cent seats already reserved for ST students in the existing hostels of the University of Delhi.
‘Janashree Bima Yojana’ for Primitive Tribal Groups:
Under the scheme of Development of Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs), this Ministry has launched an ambitious project of insuring the lives of heads of each PTG family under the ‘Janashree Bima Yojana’ of Life Insurance Corporation of India and targeted to cover 500,000 PTG families during the Tenth Plan.
During 2004-05, an amount of Rs. 500 was released to 16 States to cover 100,000 heads of PTG families and during 2005-06, Rs. 1,000 lakh has been released to 17 States/UT to cover 2,00,000 earning members of PTG families.
The following benefits would be provided to those whose lives have been insured for a period of 5 years at no premium payment from them:
Ø Payment of Rs.50,000 to nearest kith and kin of life insured in case of accidental death or permanent disability caused;
Ø Payment of Rs.20,000 to the nearest kith and kin in case of natural death;
Ø Permanent disability due to accident-Rs.50,000
Ø Payment of Rs.25,000 in case of partial disability, and
Ø Educational grant of Rs.300 per quarter for 2 children of the life insured studying in class IX and above.
Post Matric Scholarship (PMS)
It has been decided on account payments to the State governments to the extent of 50 per cent of the Central share of the previous years, so that the ST students may get the scholarship in time.
Though the scheme of PMS was revised w.e.f. April 1, 2003, the increase in rates of PMS ranging from 50 per cent to 100 per cent on its various components was not followed by an increase in the Budget allocation. The Government took stock of this and increased the budget for the distribution of scholarship and arrears, wherever due. from Rs. 64.50 crore (allocated in 2004-05) to Rs. 229.65 crore during the year 2005-06.
Grants –in –Aid to State Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation etc. (STDCCs) for Minir Forest Produce Operations.
The scheme was launched during 1992-93. This is a Central Sector Scheme grant-in –aid extended to:
(a) State Tribal Development Coperative Corporations
(b) Forest Development Corporations, (FDCs)
(c) Minor Forest Produce(Trading & Development) Federations.
The funds under the scheme are available to the State TDCCs/FDCs etc for:
Ø increasing the quantum of MFP handled by setting off operational losses, if need be.
Ø strengthening the share capital base of the Corporation for undertaking MFP operations thereby increasing the quantum of MFP presently handled.
Ø setting up of scientific warehousing facilities, wherever necessary.
Ø establishing processing industries for value addition with the objective of ensuring maximum returns on the MFPs for the tribals.
Ø giving consumption loans to tribals.
Ø supplementing Research & Development (R&D) efforts.
In the new decentralised procedure, the States are required to first identify the geographical pockets in far-flung under-served tribal areas along with services in which such areas are deficient, such as education, health, drinking water, etc. The lists of under-served tribal areas along with the services found to be deficient are also required to be communicated to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. As per the new guidelines the project proposals having their activities in such deficient tribal areas should alone be recommended and duly prioritised to accommodate within the funds allocated to the State. At the beginning of the financial year, all the States are intimated about their tentative fund allocation in order to send the recommendations as soon as possible.
In the above context as per the revised guidelines, the States are also required to get all the projects examined through field functionaries and determine their necessity in the thrust sectors identified by each State for NGO intervention. In order to do such examination, the State Committee would get the proposals of the NGOs inspected through the District authorities as per the detailed inspection format provided by the Ministry. Only after getting the inspection report from the field functionaries at the District level, the State Committee would examine the cases for further recommendation.
In order to implement the decentralised procedure in a more transparent manner and to involve the States as well as the District authorities, it has been decided to constitute a State Committee for Supporting Voluntary Effort at the State level to be chaired by Principal Secretary/Secretary to the State looking after tribal welfare with the following composition:
1.Principal Secretary/Secretary of the Department looking after the tribal Chairman
2.Secretary, Department of Rural Development in the State or his representative Member
3.Secretary, Department of Agriculture in the State or his representative Member
4.Secretary, Department of Health in the State or his representative Member
5.Three Experts/reputed NGOs from the States to be nominated by the Chairman Member
6.Commissioner/Director, Tribal Welfare of the State or Director, Tribal Research Institute Member-Secretary
The Ministry has issued the detailed guidelines to all the States on June 2, 2005. The State governments of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal and West Bengal have already constituted the State Level Committees and except for Jammu & Kashmir and Sikkim, all other States have already sent their State Level Committee recommendations.
The new decentralised procedure has infused more transparency in the system by devolving more powers to the States for scrutinising, identifying and recommending the most eligible cases for NGO intervention after getting them monitored and evaluated by the District level functionaries.
Tribal Sub Plan Strategy
The Tribal Sub Plan was adopted for the first time at the beginning of the V Five Year Plan in 1974-95 and continues till date. It applies to 21 States and 2 Union Territories where Scheduled Tribes constitute a sizeable population. However, the TSP allocations were not pursued seriously by the line Ministries and State governments in letter and spirit and consequently resources have not been utilised in a focussed manner under a tribal centric policy to benefit the target group.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs proactively advocates for pooling of resources to be earmarked under TSP component in each of the State. The Planning Commission had constituted a Sub Group of the Task Force on Development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the Chairpersonship of Secretary (Tribal Affairs). The report of the Sub Group was accepted by the Planning Commission’s main Task Force. Due to the constant persuasions of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Planning Commission have now issued orders to this effect directing the States to earmark funds for TSP from total State Plan outlay at least in the proportion of the ST population to the total population of the State/UT. As per guidelines issued by the Planning Commission, the Tribal Sub Plan funds are to be non-divertible and non-lapsable. The guidelines also provide that the Tribal Welfare Departments will be the nodal Departments for the formulation and implementation of the Tribal Sub Plan in the States. If the States follow the guidelines, approximately an amount of Rs. 15,161.85 crore would become available for spending under Tribal Sub Plan.
The Ministry is also advocating institutionalising similar mechanism for Central Ministries, which will ensure a flow of approximately Rs. 9,973.76 crore under Plan and Rs. 1,960 crore under Non Plan, during 2006-07 as 8 per cent of their budget.
Development of Forest Village
There are around 3,000 forest villages in the country. Forest villages are those villages, which were set up in remote and inaccessible forest areas during the British period with a view to providing uninterrupted manpower for forestry operations. These villages are well recorded in the records of State Forest Departments. Many of these villages, despite their long existence, are, even today, not revenue villages and the land is recorded as forest land, covered under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Consequently, the tribals inhabiting the forest villages do not get the benefit of various welfare schemes, due to non-availability of title of land in their favour, and also because, in many cases, the jurisdiction of the block and revenue authorities does not cover forest villages. The condition of the tribals living in the forest villages is, therefore, very precarious.
After the enactment of the Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, State governments faced problems in taking up non-forestry developmental activities relating to infrastructure for improving socio-economic conditions of people living in the villages located in the forests areas. This matter was taken up with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on various issues of tribal-forest interface, including eviction drive in States leading to harassment of tribal community.
At the instance of this Ministry, the Ministry of Environment & Forests has come out in January 2005, with a one-time general approval under Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 allowing diversion of forest lands for providing the basic and essential developmental facilities to the tribal/ forest villages such as schools, dispensary/ hospital, electric and communication lines, drinking water, water/rainwater harvesting structures, minor irrigation canal, non-conventional sources of energy, skill up-gradation/ vocational training centres, power sub-stations, communication posts and police establishments like police stations/ outposts/ border outposts/ watch towers, in sensitive areas (identified by Ministry of Home Affairs).
The Ministry has urged all the State governments, to use this opportunity for comprehensive planning and implementation of work to improve the infrastructure in the tribal villages so as they too have excellent infrastructure facilities and substantially improved access to basic services, viz. healthcare, education, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, irrigation, markets, livelihood, etc.
Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship
The UPA Government, through its Common Minimum Programme, focuses on creating facilities which may encourage ST students to undergo higher education like M.Phil and Ph.D etc., which will help them in getting jobs requiring higher educational qualifications like those of lecturers in universities/colleges and similar other assignments. In compliance thereof, a new scheme entitled Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship Scheme, to provide fellowships for M.Phil and Ph.D courses for ST students, was conceived by the Ministry. The scheme has been approved by the Cabinet for implementation from the financial year 2005-06 through the University Grants Commission. An amount of Rs. 7.95 crore has already been released during the year 2005-06 to give fellowships to approximately 667 ST students.
Details of the initiatives taken by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs towards the development of the Scheduled Tribes during the two year period of UPA Government, which are still in the process of advance stage of completion
The Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005
The tenurial and access rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes who, are the poorest of the poor, and who had been living in their ancestral habitat for ages in symbiotic relationship with the ecosystem, had not been adequately recognised so far due to faulty reservation processes in the past, resulting in historical injustice to these forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes. The Hon’ble Prime Minister had accordingly mandated this Ministry on January 19, 2005, to formulate a comprehensive Central legislation to redress this historical injustice done to the tribal communities and for clear assertion of their legal rights on land. As per this mandate, the Ministry drafted a Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005 in a record time and introduced the said Bill in the Lok Sabha on December 13, 2005.
Some of the salient features of the Bill are given below:
Ø Scheduled Tribes living in forests for generations are integral to very survival and sustainability of Forests and are inseparable with the eco-system, including wildlife, and cannot survive isolation is recognised by the Bill.
Ø Rights of forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes, which were not recognized during the process of consolidation of Forests since colonial period as well as in Independent India, will be recognised legally.
Ø With the conferment of right to hold and live in the forests, they will not be looked upon as “encroachers of forest lands” and the threat of eviction, which looms large in their psyche, will be removed.
Ø With the conferment of ownership rights over the Minor Forest Produce (MFP) to FDSTs the FDSTs, the major sources of the exploitation of the STs will be taken care of.
Ø Even fruits of Development Schemes, such as Indira Awas Yojana, which have been denied so far will be available to FDSTs.
Ø The Bill proposes to achieve the twin objective of environmental conservation and justice to the STs by being in tune with and providing for more stringent checks and balances than the existing Legislative/Policy frame of the Ministry of Environment & Forests.
This Bill represents a major paradigm shift in approach towards addressing the concerns for providing tenurial security, livelihood and traditional rights to the forest dwelling scheduled tribes who have been living in forests for generations without a legal protection.
The introduction of the Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005 in Parliament is thus an historic step to recognise the following rights:
Ø Tenurial security providing a great relief against the physical and psychological alienation of land, the scheduled tribes belong to.
Ø Livelihood in terms of the subsistence agriculture on ‘as is where is basis’ and the ownership of MFP including rights to collect, trade and process the same.
Ø Traditional and customary rights.
The Bill also casts upon the forest dwelling tribal communities the responsibilities of protection, conservation and regeneration of forests and will result in their greater participation in the efforts of the Government in this direction.
The Bill, when enacted, would be applicable to all the States/UTs, except Jammu & Kashmir, and would benefit forest dwelling scheduled tribes in all these States/UTs.
The Bill has been referred to a Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament for examination. The Joint Committee is expected to submit its report by May 23, 2006.
Programmes for Minor Irrigation Facilities on Tribal Lands
In consonance with the commitment made by the UPA Government in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) and considering that STs usually reside in remote, far flung and often inaccessible areas with undulating terrain where irrigation facilities are poor, the Ministry initiated a special project to provide 100 per cent financial assistance to States for taking up minor irrigation scheme for tribal people. Accordingly, during the year 2005-06, at the instance of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Planning Commission had made an allocation of Rs.50 crore over and above Rs.330 crore under the Article 275 (1) of the Constitution in the budget (2005-06) of the Ministry exclusively for providing minor irrigation facilities in the tribal areas of the States.
Rajiv Gandhi Girls’ Hostel Complex for North East
Recognising the need for adequate hostel facilities for Scheduled Tribe girls from the North East studying in Delhi University and its affiliated colleges, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) decided to construct a 500 seated Girls’ Hostel in the Delhi University campus. The building and associate infrastructure will be jointly funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Ministry of DONER. The proposed hostel will be for ST and other girl students from the North East in the ratio of 40:60, respectively. The foundation stone of the proposed Hostel, which has been named the Rajiv Gandhi Girls’ Hostel Complex for the North East was laid on January 1, 2006. The seats for ST girls in the proposed Hostel will be in addition to 7.5 per cent seats already reserved for ST students in the existing hostels of the University of Delhi.
‘Janashree Bima Yojana’ for Primitive Tribal Groups:
Under the scheme of Development of Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs), this Ministry has launched an ambitious project of insuring the lives of heads of each PTG family under the ‘Janashree Bima Yojana’ of Life Insurance Corporation of India and targeted to cover 500,000 PTG families during the Tenth Plan.
During 2004-05, an amount of Rs. 500 was released to 16 States to cover 100,000 heads of PTG families and during 2005-06, Rs. 1,000 lakh has been released to 17 States/UT to cover 2,00,000 earning members of PTG families.
The following benefits would be provided to those whose lives have been insured for a period of 5 years at no premium payment from them:
Ø Payment of Rs.50,000 to nearest kith and kin of life insured in case of accidental death or permanent disability caused;
Ø Payment of Rs.20,000 to the nearest kith and kin in case of natural death;
Ø Permanent disability due to accident-Rs.50,000
Ø Payment of Rs.25,000 in case of partial disability, and
Ø Educational grant of Rs.300 per quarter for 2 children of the life insured studying in class IX and above.
Post Matric Scholarship (PMS)
It has been decided on account payments to the State governments to the extent of 50 per cent of the Central share of the previous years, so that the ST students may get the scholarship in time.
Though the scheme of PMS was revised w.e.f. April 1, 2003, the increase in rates of PMS ranging from 50 per cent to 100 per cent on its various components was not followed by an increase in the Budget allocation. The Government took stock of this and increased the budget for the distribution of scholarship and arrears, wherever due. from Rs. 64.50 crore (allocated in 2004-05) to Rs. 229.65 crore during the year 2005-06.
Grants –in –Aid to State Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation etc. (STDCCs) for Minir Forest Produce Operations.
The scheme was launched during 1992-93. This is a Central Sector Scheme grant-in –aid extended to:
(a) State Tribal Development Coperative Corporations
(b) Forest Development Corporations, (FDCs)
(c) Minor Forest Produce(Trading & Development) Federations.
The funds under the scheme are available to the State TDCCs/FDCs etc for:
Ø increasing the quantum of MFP handled by setting off operational losses, if need be.
Ø strengthening the share capital base of the Corporation for undertaking MFP operations thereby increasing the quantum of MFP presently handled.
Ø setting up of scientific warehousing facilities, wherever necessary.
Ø establishing processing industries for value addition with the objective of ensuring maximum returns on the MFPs for the tribals.
Ø giving consumption loans to tribals.
Ø supplementing Research & Development (R&D) efforts.
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