BJD Rajya Sabha member Narendra Kumar Swain has urged Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram to release arrear grants to the Odisha Model Tribal Education Society at the earliest so that its sponsored educational institutions can speed up programmes to lessen female illiteracy in tribal areas of the State.
Notably, the Ministry has been providing funds under the scheme “Strengthening education among ST girls in low literacy districts” since 2008-09. The support has also contributed significantly in improving educational standards of Primitive Tribal Groups (PVTG) girls.
But the Ministry, despite repeated reminders of the State ST and SC Development Department, has not been releasing funds regularly as a result tribal girls’ literacy campaign is suffering, Swain mentioned in the letter.
While the Ministry has to release funds of Rs 12.38 crore for the FY 2014-15 and Rs 13.04 crore for the FY 2015-16 for running of the 19 educational complexes, it relased Rs 2.1 crore for 2014-15 and Rs 7.26 Crore for 2015-16 after repeated requests. Hence, the ST and SC Development Department is facing difficulties to manage these schools.
Further, the low-paid employees of these institutions have also been repeatedly putting forth their grievances for enhancing their remuneration.
“These employees are mostly from the PVTG community. The wages should be commensurate with the other schools. I hope that the Minister being a son of the soil will come forward to meet the genuine demands,” Swain told The Pioneer.