Latest news with #DAJGUA
United News of India
15 hours ago
- Politics
- United News of India
Rs 141.82 cr sanctioned for tribal welfare under DAJGUA
Agartala, July 2 (UNI) The Centre has sanctioned Rs 141.82 crore under the Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA) for Tripura, which has been implemented across 392 revenue villages of the state to facilitate tribal welfare. Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister Ratan Lal Nath said today that the amount was sanctioned last year for development activities in the next five years. An amount of Rs 81.69 crore has been allocated for the construction of 20 new hostels, two Multi-Purpose Marketing Centres (TMMC), renovation of 16 hostels attached to Ashram, Government, Residential Schools, and establishment of nine Barmadhikar (FRA) Cells. Additionally, Rs 14.28 crore has been approved for the construction of 119 Anganwadi Centres, Rs 1.12 crore for fish farming in 28 hectares of water bodies, hostels under Samaras Shiksha Abhiyan, Rs 2.36 crore under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, and Rs 42.37 crore for providing electricity connections to 7,677 households and 512 public places. The minister further said that the present government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is working for the development of the tribal community. The PM has announced the PM Janman scheme. The government is focused on the upliftment and development of tribal people, which is why this movement is underway. Earlier, there were hardly any schools, but now you will find many—English medium schools, pre-primary, LKG, and UKG, Nath said and added. 'We are working to provide better quality education, and that's why we are stressing students' development. They are the future of the country.' UNI BB ARN 1157
Indian Express
7 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Centre's outreach to tribal people can be starting point for bottom-up development. But it won't be easy
On June 15, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs launched an outreach programme, targeting around 1 lakh tribal-dominated villages, to ensure doorstep delivery of two welfare schemes: Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan (PM JANMAN) and Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA). It aims to provide tribals with basic documents like the Aadhaar and Ayushman Bharat cards, title under the Forest Rights Act, pension accounts, as well as Jan Dhan accounts, while helping them to get enrolled in the existing schemes. The campaign's objectives — to make tribal populations aware of the existing schemes while promoting 'participatory governance through community mobilisation' — are commendable. But there will be challenges. In the past couple of years, the Union government has taken measures to bridge the developmental gap between tribal populations and the rest. The PM JANMAN was launched in 2023, targeting the socio-economic development of 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) across 18 states and one UT. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched DAJGUA, which aims to fill the infrastructural gaps in 63,843 villages. Large sections, however, have yet to receive the benefits of the schemes. While difficulties in reaching geographically inaccessible terrain is a major barrier, landlessness remains a concerning issue, especially for the PVTGs. In November 2024, President Droupadi Murmu flagged it; she asked NITI Aayog to facilitate land provision in tribal areas. Another challenge is getting the required documents for accessing different schemes. Reports published in this newspaper in October 2024 showed how many from the Katkari Adivasi communities in Pune struggled to get the birth and death certificates necessary for accessing welfare benefits under the Tribal Sub Plans (TSP). The reason cited was the non-recognition of their village after displacement due to the construction of the Dimbhe Dam in 1984. In the decades after Independence, millions of tribal people have been displaced by dams, mines, wildlife sanctuaries and industries. A sustained effort is required to understand their special predicaments and needs. For that, governance must be prioritised over political symbolism. This outreach campaign can be a starting point.
The Hindu
24-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
More than 22,000 camps held in nine days to take DAJGUA to tribal villages
In the last nine days, the government has held more than 22,000 'Jan Seva' camps as part of its push to ensure saturation coverage of the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry's Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA). The Centre said it had reached over 53 lakh Scheduled Tribes (ST) individuals, helping them avail the benefits of the schemes. The DAJGUA package was launched in 2023 and brings together about 25 interventions from 17 line Ministries for full scheme saturation under various government programmes to about 68,000 villages dominated by ST communities. As part of this, the government is currently undertaking an information, education, and communication (IEC) outreach to over 5.5 crore tribals in more than one lakh villages and habitations of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) across 550 districts of the country. The DAJGUA programme is a 'central feature' of the Indian Government's celebration of the Janjatiya Gaurav Varsh being commemorated to mark the 150th birth anniversary of tribal icon Birsa Munda. The IEC campaign under DAJGUA was launched on June 15 and will go on till July 15. In the nine days of the campaign so far, the government said that through the Jan Seva camps, it had been able to achieve 1.38 lakh Aadhaar enrolments, 1.68 lakh Ayushmaan Bharat card registrations, 46,000 PM Kisan registrations, the addition of 22,000 PM Ujjwala beneficiaries, and 32,000 new PM Jan Dhan accounts. The government's big push on this scheme has come with Governors, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, and State Ministers taking the lead in launching and supporting the IEC campaign for the DAJGUA programme, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Ladakh, Governor Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel in Madhya Pradesh, and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam. In addition to the above-mentioned enrolments, the government has been helping people get other documents that may assist them in availing the benefits of government schemes. Some examples include helping people get caste certificates, domicile certificates, and Forest Rights Act pattas. 'DAJGUA provides legal aid, nutrition support, health check-ups, and the facilitation of Forest Rights Act (FRA) claims, while also onboarding tribal start-ups — making it a convergence-based model that exemplifies what proactive, inclusive governance can achieve,' the Centre said in a statement on Tuesday. 'This Abhiyan is a tribute to our tribal brothers and sisters who live in harmony with nature. It is not just an outreach programme — it is a revolution in inclusive governance,' the statement quoted Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram as saying.
The Hindu
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
In forest rights push, Centre sanctions over 300 FRA cells to ‘facilitate' implementation
In a first since the Forest Rights Act (FRA) came into being in 2006, the Union government has started funding structural mechanisms to 'facilitate' the implementation of the law meant to give forest rights to Scheduled Tribes and forest-dwelling communities. Implementation of the FRA, for the last 19 years, has been solely the domain of State and union territory governments. Under the Dharti Aba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyaan (DAJGUA), a Central scheme, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has so far sanctioned the setting up of 324 district-level FRA cells across 18 States and union territories implementing the forest rights law. In addition, State-level FRA cells have been sanctioned for 17 of these States and union territories. The rules governing the operation of these cells flow from the DAJGUA programme and not the principal legislation of the FRA - The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. This law mandates the State government to set up the structure for processing forest rights claims, which includes Gram Sabha Forest Rights Committees (FRCs), Sub-Divisional Level Committees (SDLCs), District Level Committees (DLCs), and State Monitoring Committees. Activists' concern With the new FRA cells being set up through the DAJGUA programme, forest rights activists and experts have raised concerns of this being a 'parallel FRA mechanism outside of FRA's purview'. A government official told The Hindu, 'These FRA cells will have no role in interfering with decisions made by the Gram Sabha, Sub-Divisional Level Committees, District Level Committees, or State government departments under the FRA. They will merely assist claimants and Gram Sabhas to prepare all paperwork for the FRA claims and assist with data management'. The DAJGUA was launched in October 2024 and brings together 25 interventions of 17 line ministries for targeted implementation in over 68,000 tribal-dominated villages. One component of the DAJGUA programme is to speed up FRA implementation. The operational guidelines for DAJGUA mandate the FRA cells to help with 'quick disposal' of pending claims, especially ones that have been held up even after the District Level Committees' approval. According to the last available progress report from March 2025, 14.45% of the 51.11 lakh FRA claims across 21 States/union territories remain pending. Of the around 43 lakh claims that have been disposed of, over 42% were rejected. The highest number of district FRA cells sanctioned so far has been in Madhya Pradesh, where 55 have been approved. This is followed by 30 in Chhattisgarh, 29 in Telangana, 26 in Maharashtra, 25 in Assam, and 24 in Jharkhand. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand are among the States with the least FRA pendency, but in Assam, over 60% of claims are pending and in Telangana, around 50.27% claims are pending. While the rules framed under the DAJGUA mandate the FRA cells to operate under the State government's machinery, the cells themselves are being funded by the Centre through Grants-in-aid General, as per sanction orders for some of them in States like Assam, Himachal Pradesh, and Odisha, seen by The Hindu. The guidelines provide a budget of ₹8.67 lakh for each FRA cell at the district level, and ₹25.85 lakh for each State-level FRA cell. Significant departure This marks a significant departure from how Union governments have handled the issue of FRA implementation ever since the law was framed. So far, when confronted with the question of forest rights in Parliament, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has maintained that the implementation was mandated 'primarily' to States and that it keeps 'exhorting' all governments to abide by the law. Apart from this, the Tribal Affairs Ministry has traditionally restricted itself to funding training and capacity-building programmes for State government officials at the centre of the FRA implementation, issuing advisories and missives to State governments, and compiling monthly progress reports on FRA data sent by the States. The DAJGUA guidelines clearly spell out that the FRA cells will deal with all matters of FRA implementation 'as directed' by the State Tribal Welfare departments and district administrations and that it will help both claimants and Gram Sabhas to prepare the claims paperwork for presentation to the Forest Rights Committees. This includes gathering evidence, certificates, Gram Sabha resolutions and putting together a claims file; assisting the Gram Sabha in conversion of forest and un-surveyed villages and habitations into revenue villages; completing demarcation of forest lands already vested to claimants; facilitating the digitisation of records and their feeding into the relevant portals. While this is the first time such FRA cells are being proposed by the Union government to speed up FRA implementation, the Odisha government has been using a similar mechanism for a couple of years now that operated as facilitators from outside of the statutory structure that processes FRA claims, according to forest rights researcher Tushar Dash. 'But the response to such a system has been mixed so far. There are concerns that many of the tasks assigned to the FRA cells already come under the functions of statutory committees set up under the FRA leading to confusion at the ground level on who to approach for what,' Mr. Dash told The Hindu. He further explained that creating more committees or cells 'will not address the structural problems in implementing the FRA'. 'It is known that a large reason for pending claims is that Sub-Divisional Level Committees and District Level Committees don't meet to decide on claims as often as they should. Secondly, there is the problem of Forest departments sitting on claims even after the approval of the DLCs,' Mr. Dash said.
The Print
31-05-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Khandu lays foundation of Rs 750-cr education infra projects
A major portion of the investment focuses on strengthening educational infrastructure. This includes upgrading 39 government higher secondary schools across the state under the Special Assistance to States for Capital Investment (SASCI) scheme at a cost of Rs 300 crore. These projects, to be executed by the Rural Works Department (RWD), are scheduled for completion in the current financial year. Itanagar, May 30 (PTI) Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Friday virtually laid the foundation stones of Rs 750-crore infrastructure development projects in the education sector. Additionally, Rs 322 crore has been earmarked for the construction of 156 hostels and teachers' quarters in all districts under the scheme. Under the Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA), 14 high-capacity hostels with 120 beds each will be built at a cost of Rs 71.40 crore. The initiative also covers the construction of 60 bachelor barracks in rural schools with an allocation of Rs 9 crore. Further, Rs 30 crore will be used for infrastructure development at Arunachal University in Pasighat (East Siang district), while Rs 23.64 crore has been set aside for constructing 394 kitchen sheds-cum-stores under the PM Poshan scheme. 'This is in line with our commitment to successfully implement the Shikshit Arunachal 2029 Mission adopted by our government,' Khandu stated. He emphasised that the mission aims to comprehensively address infrastructure requirements in government schools, while also enacting policy reforms to revamp the state's education system. Reiterating his stance on improving quality, the chief minister announced that non-functional schools or those with zero attendance will be shut down. These will be replaced by an inter-village school model to optimise resources and outcomes. 'Over the years, in our pursuit of quantity, we compromised on quality. Under the Shikshit Arunachal Mission, we aim to elevate the standard of education to top-notch levels by 2029,' he asserted. PTI UPL UPL ACD This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
