AGARTALA, Jan 6 - The BJP-IPFT Government in Tripura has decided to seek a special package of Rs 8,389.71 crore from Centre for socio-economic-cultural- linguistic development of the indigenous people of the State. The Council of Ministers in its meeting held here on Thursday, cleared the proposal.
Speaking to the media on Friday, Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath said no earlier government has taken steps for overall development of the indigenous people of the State. �Prior to the last Assembly elections, a team of BJP-IPFT had met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and briefed him about the socio-economic condition of the tribal people. In the meeting, it was decided a committee will be constituted to look into their problems and for taking remedial measures�, he said.
In the BJP�s vision document, it was promised that a modality committee would be formed to ensure development of tribal people if the party was voted to power.
And, the Centre has constituted the committee with Reena Mitra, secretary of MHA�s Internal Security as its chairperson and Satyendra Kumar, joint secretary of MHA as its member secretary.
The committee visited the State in August and held meetings with officials of the State Government, Autonomous District Council, political parties and NGOs to know their views on the development of the tribal people.
Recently, the committee sought the view of the State Government before drawing a well designed plan for the welfare of tribal people.
Accordingly, the government sought opinions/views on the issue from different departments and they submitted their feedbacks to the government. Based on the feedback, the State Government compiled a comprehensive package amounting to Rs 8,389.71 crore for tribal welfare. And, the State Cabinet passed the package and the same will be sent to the Centre for final approval.
It may be noted that the Modality Committee was supposed to visit the State on Wednesday but could not make it due to unavoidable circumstances, according to sources. The panel would soon come to the State to give a final touch on the ongoing mega exercise for tribal welfare.
