Rs 20K-cr budgetary allocation sought for uplift of tribals

Tribal associations also demand establishment of central tribal varsity

Associations working towards uplift of tribal communities in the State have sought Rs 20,000 crore budgetary allocation in the forthcoming Central budget 2016-17.

Members of National Adivasi Alliance (NAA), Rajya Moolanivasigala Vedike, Budakattu Krishikara Sangha (BKS), Tribal Joint Action Committee (TJAC), Village Forest Rights Committees and Nagarahole Tribes Rights Restoration Committee, have approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister for Tribal Welfare Jual Oram in this regard.

An estimated Rs 20,000 crore and 70,000 acres of agriculture land are required to rehabilitate 72,000 tribal families in the State. Besides, funds to purchase lands for these families and to pay compensation to them are among other demands, TJAC State convener S Sreekant told Deccan Herald.

A committee, constituted by the Karnataka High Court, has identified 3,418 families displaced from forests in Hunsur and HD Kote taluks in Mysuru district and Virajpet taluk in Kodagu district. The committee has also recommended a compensation package for rehabilitation that includes five acres of land, Rs 10 lakh compensation and civic amenities.

Overall nearly 14,000 tribals and other forest dwelling families from different communities from the forests in Bandipur, Kudremukh, Hansi and BR Hills were evicted complying with Wildlife Act, says Sreekant.

It is equally important to identify all tribal settlements and provide them civic amenities like school, anganawadi, roads, houses, Large-Scale Adivasi Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies (LAMP), health services, drinking water and electricity facilities, skill-oriented trainings and petty shops and other vocational facilities to help their livelihood. This can be done if Centre allots Rs five core to each tribal settlements for civic amenities, he added.

The associations have also demanded 1,000 acres of land and Rs 1,000 crore for the establishment of Central Tribal University in Karnataka to provide quality education from pre-primary to postgraduation, targetting 20,000 tribal children.

Of the 72,000 tribal families in Karnataka, who depend on forest resources for survival, 25,000 families have submitted applications for Individual Forest Land Rights. Of that only 8,000 families have received title deeds for less than one acre of land.

Out of 1,500 tribal settlements, only 45 settlements have received title deeds and applications have not been collected from more than 1,300 tribal settlements. To implement the Act by involving traditional grama sabhas and Village Forest Rights Committees, the associations have sought Rs 6,000 crore, said Sreekant.