A meeting of sub-groups of Governors related to the issues of Tribal Affairs is scheduled to be held in Delhi, during this month.
In this connection, Mizoram Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi on Thursday morning held a meeting at the Raj Bhavan in Aizawl with officials from the State Government.
At the meeting, the Governor had a long discussion with the officials on the issues of economic, social and educational development of Tribal under the sectoral coverings of Article 275(1).
This was followed by Power Point presentations of the implementations on the subject and detailed deliberation.
During this discussion, important subjects such as – Governance of areas covered under 5th schedule, appointment of Tribal Advisory Councils and strengthening the Integrated Tribal Development Agency/Modified Area Development Agency (ITDAs/MADA) agencies were discussed.
Some other issues that came up for discussion were protection of cultural uniqueness of tribes, resolving forest land disputes and conferring land ownership to the forest dwellers by drawing specific cut-off date.
The meeting also discussed right to the tribes on the forest produce, special residential schools in the tribal areas and decentralized planning involving the local tribes.
A standard mining policy was resolved to be adopted duly conserving the interest of the tribes, implementation of the strict R&R Policy for tribal rehabilitation in case of major infrastructural development.
It would also encompass improvement of health and hygienic conditions of the tribes by deploying trained health staff, Anganwadi workers.
Some other areas include mobile ambulances, fair price shops, distribution of mosquito nets, training the locally educated youth on the first aid service etc.
The meeting also discussed saturation approach in providing housing, land, safe drinking water, electricity (preferably solar).