RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, May 19: Former minister and member of coordination committee of Jharkhand government and working president of Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee, Bandhu Tirkey today expressed his concern over the neglect and deprivation of most of the tribal groups from welfare schemes even after 22 years of establishment of Jharkhand.
Issuing a press statement, the firebrand tribal leader Tirkey said that at present, 32 castes are listed in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Jharkhand, but so far the state government has not come up with any balanced and planned development of all of them.
“The state government should prepare its plan afresh, because till now this thing has not been fully implemented. It has been proved that due to many reasons, those tribal groups have not yet been able to get adequate benefits from various government schemes. Lack of awareness among them is a serious and critical issue,” he said.
He said that each tribal community or group has its own distinct culture, civilization, way of life and overall, a distinct identity which should not only be protected but the government should also prepare an effective plan for its up gradation.
Tirkey suggested that the government should constitute a high-level expert committee, especially of eminent people from the tribal community and entrust it with the responsibility of preparing an effective plan for the balanced and coordinated development of all tribal communities in a limited period, so that all tribes can bring themselves into the mainstream from economic, social and educational point of view.
Tirkey said that if this is not done then it is futile to even imagine the coordinated-balanced and expected development of all those diverse tribal groups for which separate Jharkhand was formed.
