'Tribal Affairs Dept works in critical areas'
Source: The Sangai Express / DIPR

Imphal, July 26 2016: Tribal Affairs, Hills and SC Development Department supplements the activities of other departments like Education, Health, Agriculture among others in critical and remote areas where special attention is needed, said Armstrong Pame, Jt Secretary Hills today.

He was interacting with media persons at a press conference organized by DIPR as part of a series to highlight the development activities of various departments of the Government of Manipur.

Earlier, the Director of TA and Hills Department Minlianthang Vaiphei addressing the same conference informed media persons that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs released a sum of Rs 3588 lakh against the initial proposal of Rs 5421.68 lakh of the Department for disbursement of post matric scholarship to tribal students.

For the current financial year 2016-17, the department has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for Rs 7269.85 lakh which is the Centre's 90 pc share to cover 80, 910 ST students.

Supplementing him on the disbursement of scholarship, Armstrong said the Department has been unable to disburse the scholarships for 2015-16 ever since the Ministry converted the funding pattern of the scheme to 90-10 with the Centre bearing 90 pc of the fund while the State's share is 10 pc.

But as the financial condition of Manipur is not very good it has not been able to fork its 10 pc share leading to the unfortunate situation, he said.

But he assured that the department is doing everything in its power to disburse the scholarships at the earliest.

On a positive note, the Jt Secy Hills recounted some of the successful schemes taken up by the department.

Among this is the skill development programmes taken up for tribal students with educational qualification till 12th standard.

Under this scheme, for the year 2015-16 110 students were given training in tourism and hospitality sector for one year.

The cost of the training which comes to Rs 15300 per student, he revealed, is totally borne by the department.

At the completion of the training all the students are now working in various airlines like AirAsia as air hostesses, some as ground staff, at hotels and as tourist guides.

For the year 2016-17, 72 students will undergo skill development training.

He further informed that for those whose educational qualification is below 12 standard skill development training in various fields such as carpentry, electrical wiring, wielding, horticulture, agriculture bakery, mushroom plantation among other will be taken up.

Under this scheme 227 tribal youths will undergo a three months training and on completion of which they will be given tools and machinery worth Rs 25,000 to start their own enterprise.

In the field of health, the department has set up Health Centre at three most remote villages of the State in Tamenglong, Churachandpur and Ukhrul district.

These health centres are run by a selected trust selected after due tender process and will render health service to around 3000.The department has also started a mortuary van service to ease the burden of family members of those who die at hospitals and clinics in Imphal and other towns.

Besides, it also lends financial assistance to tribal patients, issues health cards to students of ADC run schools.

The department is also giving paramedical training to 60 students at the Shija Hospital at the cost of Rs 2 lakh per student.

Another major achievement of the Department, said Armstrong is the revival of the Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) in Tamenglong, Sapermeina and Moreh with 100 students each.

These will have classes from 6th standard to 10th standard.

The success of these schools can be gauged from the fact that for 30 seats in Sapermeina a total of 1500 students applied necessitating the conduct of an entrance exam.

Despite this, the department concedes that the overall education scenario is pretty bleak with many of the 944 schools in the hills in quite a bad shape.

Shortage of teachers and poor infrastructure are the major problems faced by these schools.

To improve the attendance of the teachers in these schools, the department has installed biometric attendance with GPRS.

For the same end, the department has also started constructing barrack like quarters for teachers.

So far 78 quarters have been constructed to with a view to improve teachers' attendance.

The Tribal Affairs, Hills and SC Development Department takes up various schemes for socio-economic development of SC and ST people through programmes like family oriented schemes, infrastructure schemes.

The department also supplements various other schemes for SC and ST people taken up other departments and intervenes at remote areas which need immediate attention.

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