Govt moots Dangs plan

It also proposes to tap the forest resource to provide employment to the tribals and set up at least five wooden processing centres and timber conversion depots. Besides, bamboos will be supplied to the tribals and they will be imparted special training in bamboo processing industry.

Revealing the details of the plan, senior IAS officer S K Nanda, secretary in-charge of the district, said here on Sunday that the plan8217;s main objective was to ensure quot;economic growth over social inequality and illiteracy plaguing the Dangi tribals for agesquot;.

Describing illiteracy as the root of poverty among the tribals, Nanda says a pre-PTC coaching camp will be set up in the district, for in the absence of such a centre, locally available teachers are not being recruited in primary or pre-primary schools in the Dangs. It is also proposed to provide employment to local PTC teachers under the Para-Teacher Scheme, under which all teachers will be paid Rs 50 per student per month.

Nanda says the infrastructure of industrial training institutes ITIs imparting technical education to tribal students will also be upgraded, with additional short-duration courses. The government has asked private industries for job placement of tribal youths, where the youths can be trained, paid and retained by the units.

Since the entire district is in rain-fed area, the government has, under the plan, envisaged storage of rain waters through check dams, storage and percolation tanks, while the work of land levelling will be taken up in a big way for spread of rain waters. This will help Dangis take to cash crops and horticulture.

The plan has evolved a Have a check dam8217; scheme, under which the government will provide 90 per cent of material inputs to local tribals for construction of check dams. quot;About 90 check dams could be constructed under the scheme soliciting people8217;s participation,quot; Nanda points out. And to solve the electricity problem, a 66 KV sub-station will be ready by the next month.

The district has a great potential for strawberry cultivation. The State forest department and the tribal development department have been directed to take up these measure, as the district can become a major strawberry production centre with proper training and financial help. The Dangs is also proposed to be developed as a major potato seed centre on the lines of Shimla. quot;The experiment in potato seed cultivation in Jhakhana village of the Dangs had proved a grand success way back in 1982 when I was the district collector,quot; recalls Nanda.