Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (July 23), announced comprehensive development plans for Eastern States.

Announcing the ‘Purvodaya’ scheme for enhancing the all-round development of the eastern region including Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, the FM said that the Centre will focus on human resource development, infrastructure growth and create generations of economic opportunity to fasten the government’s aim of ‘Viksit Bharat’. The finance minister told the House that the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Unnat Gram Abhiyan will be launched to improve the socio-economic condition of tribal communities. States such as Jharkhand which has large population of tribals will be benefited from the scheme.  Jharkhand has nearly 26 per cent of tribal population along with five ST reserved LS seats and 28 Assembly seats reserved for tribals.

Sources said that as BJP has failed to win any ST seats in last general election and has also performed poorly in last Assembly election the announcement of new schemes is a step to woo tribals by BJP.

The Finance Minister told the House that the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Unnat Gram Abhiyan will be launched to improve the socio-economic condition of tribal communities. The scheme will adopt saturation coverage for tribal families in tribal-dominated villages and aspiring districts. This will cover 63,000 villages benefiting 5 crore tribal people. This will benefit the tribal community of Jharkhand. Also as the scheme aims at improving infrastructural development in aspirational districts, Jharkhand will be benefited as  Jharkhand as nineteen aspirational districts.

On the other hand, proposals for land-related reforms and action have been made in the Union Budget 2024-25. This will benefit tribal-dominated states like Jharkhand. At the same time, land administration, urban planning, use and building bylaws will be improved in both rural and urban areas. All lands in rural areas will be assigned unique land parcel identification numbers. Land registry will be established in rural areas.

Apart from government announcing the Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan to improve the socio-economic conditions of tribal communities in the country it also increased the budgetary allocation for the ministry concerned by nearly 70 per cent. The government has allocated Rs 13,000 crore to the tribal affairs ministry in the budget, up from Rs 7,605 crore in the previous financial year.

An amount of Rs 6,399 crore has been set aside for establishing Eklavya model residential schools to provide quality education to tribal students in remote areas.

However, the budgetary allocation for the "National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher Education of ST Students" has decreased from Rs 230 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 165 crore in 2024-25.

The allocation for the "Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Minorities" has been increased from Rs 2,959.43 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 6,611.69 crore in 2024-25.
Financial support for the Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAAGY) has been increased from Rs 300 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 1,000 crore in 2024-25.

Under the PMAAGY, funds are provided to states and Union territories with notified ST populations for the development and welfare of tribal people to bridge gaps in sectors such as education, health, agriculture, skill development and employment-cum-income generation.