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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Saxena panel trashes tribal welfare schemes

Saxena panel trashes tribal welfare schemes

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published Published on Jan 18, 2011   modified Modified on Jan 18, 2011

NC Saxena , the influential former bureaucrat who is a member of the National Advisory Council, has raised the ineffectiveness of government programmes among tribal people in a paper that will come up for discussion before the Sonia-Gandhi headed council.

The government relied on a report by Saxena last year in denying clearance to a large mining project by Vedanta Resources in Orissa’s Niyamgiri hills . This had attracted international attention as the project was seen to be threatening the habitat of the ancient Dongria Kondh tribe. In the paper, titled Tribal Neglect and Limitations of the Budgetary Approach to Development, which Saxena has already submitted to the NAC, he criticises the functioning of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, showing how the ministry does not even spend funds allocated to it and fails in adopting a proactive approach to issues that affect tribal people but are under the purview of other ministries.

“Many issues that affect tribal people are under the ministry of rural development or environment or panchayati raj etc. Now the tribal affairs ministry must collect evidence and put pressure on the other ministries to ensure service delivery. Instead, they seem to have a narrow understanding of their responsibility and focuses only on allocation of grants to NGOs etc. A more proactive approach is needed,” Saxena said.

Saxena shows that the ministry has been unable to spend even the limited budget allotted to it. Every year since 2006-07 (the period the paper considers), the ministry has spent well under 100% of its allocation. In 2009-10 , the ministry spent just 62.35% of the allocation. This meant that there was little increase in budget outlay for the ministry for 2010-11 . Saxena, who heads a government panel responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, argues that the ministry of tribal affairs has failed to get FRA implemented faithfully .

The paper highlights the ministry’s failure to finalise the National Tribal Policy, the draft of which was announced six years back. “There is no white paper from the ministry relating to the pathetic condition of governance in forest-dependent villages, including huge vacancies and absenteeism of staff,” the paper says. In two districts of Jharkhand, which the Unicef studied as part of a report on the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission, it was found that more than 50% of approved positions were vacant . Saxena argues that vacant positions are a result of the government yielding to political pressure from the staff, who are reluctant to work in tribal areas.

Saxena’s paper says that the ministry’s plea that many subjects that affect tribal people, such as land alienation and displacement, are outside of its purview, is not sufficient ground for its inactivity on these subjects. “When a new ministry is set up to help marginalised people, it is expected that it would take a holistic view of their problems, and co-ordinate activities of all other ministries that deal with the subjects impinging on the work of the newly created ministry,” the paper argues. The paper and the issues it raises might come up for discussion during NAC’s next meeting scheduled for Friday.

The Economic Times, 18 January, 2011, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/saxena-panel-trashes-tribal-welfare-schemes-/articleshow/7308695.cms


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