To ensure livelihood support of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), the State Government would implement a special scheme titled “Odisha PVTG Empowerment and livelihood Improvement Programme (OPElIP) soon with an overall outlay of Rs795 crore which is targeted to benefit around 62,000 households. This was revealed at the tribes advisory council meeting held under the chairmanship of CM Naveen Patnaik. ST and SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare, 15 MlAs, one MP and other members of the council attended the meeting.
The Chief Minister stressed that the literacy rate during the last decade amongst the tribal communities has increased from 37 per cent to 52 per cent, while the performance of students in examinations has been very encouraging. The meeting revealed that the percentage of students securing first divisions in Matriculation examination in residential schools of ST and SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department have increased almost threefold from 14 per cent to 42 per cent during the last five years.
Basing on the initiative of the State Government, Tileibani block in Deogarh district has recently been declared as a new Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) to facilitate overall development of tribal communities in the region. The meeting approved the draft annual report on the Administration of Scheduled Areas for the year 2012-13. The TAC was appraised that with distribution of 3.43 lakh individual rights covering an area of 5.44 lakh acres and 3,474 community rights over an area of 1.80 lakh acres under Forest Rights Act, Odisha continues to be the best performer in the entire country.