PORVORIM: Tribal Welfare Minister Govind Gaude on Wednesday said that the income limit for all State-funded schemes for tribal students will be dropped or the limit will be increased to Rs 6 lakh so that more people will benefit.
The Minister said the State will also write to the Centre to make centrally-funded schemes free of the income limit. He said that schemes like pre-matric scholarship and post-matric scholarship are centrally funded and department tried to make both schemes income-free but due to technical points could not do it. Gaude said that schemes in the ambit of the State government would be modified for the income limit.
He said that tribal welfare funds were not effectively utilised by the department due to the code of conduct in the State. “I have formulated tribal advisory council for effective implementation of the tribal funds in time bound manner,” the Minister said.
Gaude assured the House that the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 will be effectively implemented by December this year. He said that though the issue is complicated, the department has decided to complete the process by holding gram sabhas wherever required.
He said directions were given to heads of the departments to complete the necessary work to implement the Act. The Minister also said that Canacona and Ponda talukas will be taken on priority as most of the work is complete in this regards by the department.
