Development of tribal dominated areas in the State can only be possible with simultaneous effort of the Government and active public participation, stated Chhattisgarh’s Tribal Development Minister Kedar Kashyap.
He was speaking at the meeting of Tribal Development ministers in New Delhi on Thursday. The meeting was presided over by Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram.
Addressing the meeting, Kashyap said that tribes in Chhattisgarh are largely dependent on agriculture as well as collection of minor forest produce for their livelihood. By undertaking development in tribal-dominated areas of the State, economic condition of tribes could be improved which could only be possible with joint effort of the government machinery and the public.
Projects pertaining to development of villages should be taken up, operated and monitored through Gram Sabha and in this regard, capacity building of Gram Sabhas is a major challenge, said Kashyap.
He further said that for capacity building of Gram Sabha under scheduled areas, regular training programme for Sarpanch, Panch, villagers and extension officers should be carried out and information related to the meeting of Gram Sabha should be maintained online. Ensuring health facilities in remote tribal areas is still a challenge and for this, micro-projects are being implemented in remote/backward and insurgency-infested through PPP model as per the need of time.
The move is going to benefit women, children and address health issues such as malnutrition.
Kashyap urged the Central government to allocate more funds in this connection.