Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and Tribal Affairs, Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today said the government has taken path-breaking initiatives for providing quality education to tribal youth with emphasis on imparting skill development training to them.The Minister was speaking during a meeting of Advisory Board for Development of Gujars and Bakerwals in Jammu.Vice Chairman, J&K State Advisory Board for Development of Gujjars and Bakerwals Zaffar Ali Khatana, Commissioner Secretary, Tribal Affairs Department Kifayat Hussain Rizvi, Director, Tribal Affairs Mohammad Rafi and Board members were present in the meeting.Enumerating various steps being taken up by the government in education sector, the Minister said construction work of Eklavya Model Residential Schools in Kulgam and Anantnag has been completed while Rs. 2 crore have been released for starting academic activities in these institutions from April 2018. Besides, Rs. 29 crore have been released for upgrading Gujjar and Bhakerwal hostels into residential schools at Poonch, Rajouri, Kathua, Doda, Bandipora and Kupwara, he added. He further said that thirty four e-classrooms would also be established in the schools in tribal areas for providing better education to the children belonging to these sections.
The Minister said the government will impart skill development training to 1,100 tribal candidates in different sectors including paramedical courses to make them employable.
The Minister directed the Commissioner Secretary, Tribal Affairs Department to fix roles and responsibilities of members of the Board for planning, monitoring and execution of various development schemes for welfare of Gujjars and Bhakerwals. He asked him to ask the Deputy Commissioners to hold meetings on quarterly basis with the Board members for solving concerns of the tribal populace.The Minister directed the Science and Technology to provide solar lights in the tribal inhabited areas besides asking concerned department for timely distribution of school uniforms and matric and post matric scholarships to the students of the community.The Minister informed that the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti’s concerted efforts led to sanctioning of Rs. 11,000 crore by the Centre for development of 17 cluster model villages in the state for tribals. He further said taking these initiatives and mission of CM forward, the department of Tribal Affairs is preparing a policy for the settlement of the nomads. The government would come up with Forest Right Act soon for providing settlement to nomads, he added.The Minister directed the department for geo-tagging of various sites where the nomads are putting up in the state. The objective of the government is to develop the state by taking all sections of the society together and ensure equitable development of all the three regions, he stressed.
The Minister said that the directions have been passed to the Divisional administration for conducting a survey to ascertain factual data of the number of nomads residing in different parts of Samba, Kathua, Jammu and Udhampur. Besides, two Working Groups would be constituted from among the Board members for supporting the administration in framing the Settlement Policy for the tribals, he added. Milk Chilling Plant would be opened in Samba for providing employment opportunities and market avenues to the community, he added.“Tribals Research Institute is being constructed in Srinagar,’ the Minister said, adding, Tribals Museum would be constructed in Jammu.The issues discussed in the meeting inter alia included achievements of Tribal Affairs Department, TSP, SCA to TSP and Article 275(1) of Constitution of India, district wise review and feedback from Board Members regarding schemes implemented by Tribal Affairs Department, list of burning issues from each district pertaining to the Tribal Areas, participation of Board Members in preparation of TSP/SCA to TSP and Article 275(i) plan from each district.The Minister also redressed some of the issues of the people on the spot with directions to the concerned for an early action on the same.The participants projected their demands and grievances regarding development of tribals.The VC, Gujjar & Bakerwals Board appreciated the efforts of Gujjar Charitable Trust for providing education to 1000 tribal students.