The Hindu : Front Page : Panel frowns at neglect of tribals

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Thursday, Jan 25, 2007
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Panel frowns at neglect of tribals

Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Scheduled Tribes Commission chairperson Kunwar Singh has taken exception to what he terms relative neglect of Scheduled Tribes by the State Government.

Mr. Singh, who visited tribal hamlets in different parts of Kerala, told a news conference here on Wednesday that the benefits of various welfare schemes meant for Scheduled Tribes were not reaching the target group. He had visited Kerala under the impression that being highly literate, the State might be providing better protection to the tribal population as compared to other parts of India, but he had found the situation in the hamlets deplorable, Mr. Kunwar Singh said.

He said the tribal hamlets were lacking in proper medical facilities, drinking water supply, power and roads. Many of the tribes were finding it difficult to cultivate in their lands as the land they had in possession was not cultivable. There was also large-scale alienation of tribal lands. On top of all this, the Government had imposed taxes on them. The Government should devise schemes for better land utilisation by the tribal population and to provide more credit to them from the cooperative sector, he said.

Mr. Kunwar Singh pointed out that even students from Scheduled Tribes with high marks in the qualifying examinations were not getting adequate number of seats for MBBS courses as the cut-off marks of entrance examinations had been fixed at a higher level. The Madhya Pradesh Government had lowered the cut-off mark of entrance examinations in the case of Scheduled Tribes. Kerala could also examine whether this could be done, he added.

He regretted the failure of representatives of several State departments to attend the review meeting he had convened to discuss the problems faced by the Scheduled Tribes. Although all the departments were supposed to send their representatives to the meeting, only Tribal, Health and Excise Departments were represented at the meeting. This showed the attitude of the bureaucracy towards the problems of the Scheduled Tribes, Mr. Kunwar Singh said.

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