Consultation meeting of NE States on Forest Act concludes

GANGTOK, 30 Oct [IPR]: The inaugural session of the concluding day of the consultation meeting with North Eastern States and Sikkim organised by Ministry of Tribal Affairs on 29 October was chaired by Economic Advisor, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Sangeeta Verma. The session dealt with planning, implementation and monitoring of Tribal Sub Plan.
In her opening remarks, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, Vibha Puri Das stressed on the need to make tribal affairs knowledge-based and not simply allocation and expenditure based. She urged the participating States to get an individual status profile prepared in three major areas namely health, education and employability through help from concerned agencies. She said that the States needed to ensure development of these three sectors in terms of access and service delivery.
The Secretary's address was followed by a presentation by the Ministry of DoNER.
As part of the state-wise presentation, Secretary, Social Justice, Empowerment & Welfare Department Government of Sikkim, GB Upadhyay apprised about the schemes and programmes on Tribal Affairs being implemented by the State of Sikkim.
He maintained that adequate impetus is given to development of Scheduled Tribes in the States in terms of infrastructure, health, education, employability and capacity building. He also highlighted the various Missions of the State Government and explained how they have integrated with tribal affairs to extend benefits to the tribal population.
Similar presentations were also rendered by senior officers of Tripura, Manipur and Assam. The states explained their individual status reports in terms of planning, implementation and monitoring of Tribal Sub Plans.
Summing up the discussions, Principal Secretary, Tribal Affairs Department, Government of Manipur, Dev Burman stressed that for TSPs, indications need to improve in correspondence with the allocation and consultation process needs to be strengthened. Further, he mentioned that knowledge enrichment and capacity building of the Tribal Departments is very important to identify gaps because if Tribal Departments are not adequately staffed, it affects the performance.
Another issue he raised was the importance of good governance and the capacity of stakeholders in implementing schemes, importance of submission of TSP documents on time and the need for proper coordination between concerned departments.
The second half of the consultation dealt with Grant-in-Aid under NGO, schemes in the North Eastern States, conservation-cum-development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PTGs), and review of other schemes or programmes. Principal Secretary, SJE&WD, Government of Sikkim summed up the recommendations.
The closing remarks were made by the Economic Advisor, Ministry of Tribal Affairs.