Minister for Consumer Affairs & Public Distribution (CAPD) and Tribal Affairs, Ch Zulfkar Ali on Saturday said that the Government is committed to safeguard the social, economic and political interests of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community.“It is our priority to work towards the socio-economic development of the Scheduled Tribe Community and bring them out of the chronic backwardness and deprivation” Zulfkar told a gathering of tribal community here today at Talwara. He said development of basic infrastructure at all Tribal Bastis for improving their living standard has been prioritized, while intervention schemes are being devised for the growth of the trades to which they are associated. “The immediate step being taken in this direction is to introduce the Concept of modern dairy farming”, he said adding that only economic well being would pave way for their emancipation and libration from age old backwardness.Describing the community as highly peace loving, the Minister said that STs lead a harmonious life and believe in mutual brotherhood and co-existence.
The Minister said that improvement of infrastructure, control over the natural resource base, displacement and resettlement and equitable distribution of wealth and opportunities have been made as benchmarks for the growth and development of tribal population.MLA Reasi-Ajay Nanda, Deputy Commissioner Reasi-Sushma Chauhan, Director Tribal Affairs-Gulzar Hussain, Chief Engineer PDD-Ajay Gupta, all district and sectoral officers, members of PRIs were also present on the occasion.Listing the initiatives being taken by the government for tribal welfare, Zulfkar said latest dairy techniques will be introduced in dairy industry as majority of tribal people still dependent on dairy farming. He said Gujarat like model will be followed to develop the dairy farming on modern lines.“To begin with, we are sending few batches of farmers (tribal community members) to Gujarat to study dairy farming and farming techniques there” Zulfkar informed.
He further added that various schemes have been devised by the government for tribal welfare and for their effective implementation, administrative agencies at district and block levels are being strengthened. Promotion of education and economic interest of tribal people is a prime concern, Zulfkar said and stressed upon the administration to find out reasons behind high dropout rate among tribal children. He stressed the need for creating mass awareness against this trend adding that stress needs to be laid on improvement of human development indicators among scheduled tribes (STs). He said one of the key objectives of the government is to work towards "technology penetration" for instance, electricity and mobile phone reach in the tribal areas. Another important objective is to link relatively undeveloped tribal areas with developed areas through better infrastructure.The Minister also deliberated on various issues raised by the representatives. Responding to their demands, the Minister assured that all their issues would be looked into for an early redressal.Later Minister also visited flood affected village Kansi Patta and issued on spot instructions regarding restoration of agriculture land.