Advisor to Governor, K Vijay Kumar today stressed on effective monitoring of schemes and programmes being implemented by Tribal Affairs Department at the ground level so that the benefits reach to the people of tribal community. He said that the plan for the holistic development of all the tribes of the state needs to be effectively executed.The Advisor said this while chairing a maiden meeting with the officers of the Tribal Affairs Department to review its functioning and the activities being carried out for the betterment of the tribal people.The meeting was attended by Secretary Tribal Affairs Salma Hamid, Secretary School Education Farooq A Shah, Director Tribal Affairs Kashmir Mohd Rafi, Director Finance Tribal Affairs and other senior officers of the department.Addressing the meeting, the Advisor asked for ensuring completion of all projects within given time frame and to effectively utilize the funds allocated for various development projects.“All the ongoing works should be expedited for providing better facilities to the tribes. Close monitoring of these works also need to be done to ensure that things are moving in right direction”, the Advisor added.With regard to the initiative of the department to establish 34 e-classrooms in 17 Cluster Tribal Model Villages, the Advisor asked Secretary School Education to provide the services of their department in working-out a plan where special learning programme can be prepared for the children’s of tribal community by which they can easily be made understand about the subjects with the help of internet and computers.
He also asked Secretary School Education to train people with basics of computer so that they can be posted at these cluster model villages to teach the students with the help of e-classroom facility.Earlier, the Secretary Tribal Affairs gave a detailed presentation about functioning of the department and status of projects/works undertaken for the tribal people.In the presentation, it was given out that as per the census 2011, scheduled Tribe Population was recorded as 14,93,299 out of total population of the state 1,25,48,926 which is the 11.90 percent of total population involving people of 12 Tribes living in the state.Detailed discussion was made on various schemes which are being implemented for upliftment of these Tribes including SCA to TSS, Article 275(1), Tribal Research Institute (TRI) and Pre/Post Matric Scholarships to ST Students.Under SCA to TSS, various activities are taken up including establishment of Cluster Tribal Model Villages, Milk Villages, Health sector, skill development, agriculture sector, tourism sector, forest sector etc.The Advisor discussed briefly all the activities and their impact on the ground with details of funds received and expenditure incurred so far. He asked for putting in sincere efforts in benefitting the tribal population with all the schemes/programmes that are being specially designed for these people.Secretary Tribal Affairs also apprised the Advisor about the main schemes of Article 275(1) that includes establishment of 05 Eklavya Model Residential Schools and 34 e-classrooms in Cluster Tribal Model Village, construction of 05 new residential schools, construction of 18 Gujjar & Bakerwal Hostels and establishment of Sheep & Dairy Units.
The details of funds utilized on these various components during 2017-18 were given along with their present physical status. The Advisor stressed on the officers to conduct regular field visits wherever construction work for the project is underway to have idea of ground situation.He also enquired about the status of construction of EMRS and expected year of start of academic session at these schools. It was informed that the work at Kulgam and Anantnag EMRS is near completion stage and hopefully the session would be kicked off from the next year.Regarding the facilities being provided to the students at the hostels which are managed by the department, the Advisor was assured that quality food and other basic facilities are being provided to the students residing at these hostels.K Vijay Kumar asked the concerned to be focused on ensuring security to the students especially in the girl hostels so that they do not feel insecure while opting for this facility.The meeting also discussed the status of under construction Tribal Research Institute (TRI). The Advisor enquired about the progress made on Research, Documentation and Training part of TRI. In reply, it was informed that the 6 Universities of the State have been assigned the Research programme which is underway. He asked the concerned to submit a brief note to his office regarding the progress they have made so far.With regard to the scholarships to ST students, the advisor asked for having a close monitoring process while disbursing the amount to the beneficiary student. It was informed that the amount is being transferred to the bank accounts of the students through DBT mode.Funds to the tune of Rs 14.8 crore has been disbursed to the ST Students under 3 different Scholarship Programmes during the year 2017-18 covering a total of 183314 ST students, the meeting was informed.