Gujarat Assembly: Budget allocation for tribals should be hiked to Rs 45,000 cr on pro-rata basis: Cong MLA

The legislator said he was raising the issue because, in 2007, Narendra Modi who was then the chief minister, had announced to spend Rs 45,000 crore on tribals under the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana between 2007 and 2012.

“Ten years after that, should the amount be increasing or decreasing? Have the tribals become so empowered that they don’t need funds ? Or is it that the tribals’ voice is not reaching the government?” Chaudhary asked.

On the issue of allocation of time to speak in the House, the Khedbrahma MLA noted that the state government has been saying that it has to be on a pro-rata basis and Congress MLAs cannot get more time than its numbers. “(Applying the same logic) I demand that, on the pro-rata basis, our (tribal) population is 15 per cent and so, we should be allocated Rs 45,000 crore,” Chaudhary said.

He also raised a number of tribal issues, including the issuance of land ownership to the community people. Of the total applications of tribals for land ownership under the Forest Rights Act, he alleged, only around 50 per cent were cleared by the state government.

In his reply, Tribal Development and Education Minister Kuber Dindor said the BJP government in Gujarat was spending more on tribals than the previous Congress governments. Dindor alleged that the Congress had used tribals as a vote bank. He said that all the 23 departments of the state government were spending funds for tribal development, in addition to the funds under Tribal Sub-Plan, and the same should also be considered.

When Chaudhary asked the minister to table those figures in the House in future, Dindor promised to do so.
The minister also stated that between 2007 and 2021, Gujarat has spent more than Rs 1 lakh crore under the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana.

Dindor also said that it was the BJP government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that had, for the first time, started a separate ministry of tribal development. He said that the BJP was not doing politics of vote bank but of humanity, while adding that of the 27 tribal seats, 23 were won by the party.