Maharashtra government to form tribal commission

 Mumbai: On the lines of the SC and ST commission, the Maharashtra government has decided to form a tribal commission in the state. The decision comes after a delegation of tribal MLAs met the President of India, Droupadi Murmu and a subsequent meeting of the tribal advisory council (TAC) with chief minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday. The TAC meeting was held at Mantralaya.

More than a week ago, delegation tribal legislators led by Maharashtra deputy speaker Narhari Zirwal had met the President of India over the issues of tribal communities. According to the sources, on the instruction of the President of India, the chief minister called a meeting of TAC.

Deputy chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar also attended this meeting along with the tribal legislators and parliamentarians. The meeting assumes a political significance as it has taken place after four years and ahead of the Lok Sabha election.  There are four tribal MPs from Maharashtra in Lok Sabha and 25 legislators in Maharashtra Assembly.

The chief minister said that his government has given approval to set up an independent tribal commission in the state. A discussion was also held on fund allocation as per the population of the tribal community in the state.

An official of the tribal development department said that there has to be a 9.35 percent budgetary allocation of the total budget in the state for tribal welfare schemes. “Rs 12,461.88 crore has been allocated for the tribal department. It is around 7.5 percent of the total budget of the state. So we will hold a meeting with the finance department to get the remaining 1.85 percent of the budget. It will be around Rs 3,500 crore. This amount will be given to the department through the supplementary demands, which is likely to be tabled in the winter session at Nagpur,” the official said.

A Lok Sabha member, who attended the TAC meeting, said that they have urged the government to appoint a full time dedicated IAS officer as a project officer in 11 tribal sensitive areas, which include Nashik, Kalwan, Jawhar, Taloda, Dahanu and Gadchiroli.

“At present, an SDO, who has been overburdened with revenue department work, has been working as a project officer too for the tribal sensitive areas. Therefore, he would not be able to give his 100 per cent for tribal related works. So a separate class one officer or an IAS needs to be posted as project officer in the tribal sensitive areas. This demand was accepted by the chief minister,” the Lok Sabha member said.