M.B. Maramkal

Highlights

· Societies which buy and market minor forest produces will be strengthened to help tribals make a gainful employment.

· Tribal women will be given training in midwifery and auxiliary services and appointed as nurses in government hospitals in tribal and non-tribal areas.

· No caste or community will be added to the ST list.

· Ragi, pulses and other cereals will be distributed through PDS shops to be opened in tribal areas.

· Ashram schools for tribal children will get govt. aid.

· 53 irrigation tanks will be sunk and given power connection by April-end.

· A survey will locate and identify tribals deprived of government benefits after their eviction from the national parks.

HOSHALLI (Hoggadadevankote) : Chief Minister Krishna on Wednesday doled out a package for tribals at the "mini-cabinet" convened by him here. It includes ban on sale of liquor in the areas inhabitated by tribals, starting with Mysore and Chamarajanagar districts.

The package is expected to provide succour to tribals whose problems ha ve been pending since two decades after they were displaced from Nagarhole and Bandipur National parks. The 154 displaced tribal families whose case has been taken up by the NHRC, will be rehabilitated and allotted land (4,000 acres) before June 30. Around 4,220 houses will be constructed for the evicted; Mata Amritanandamayi has agreed to build 250 houses.

The government has decided to ban sale of liquor in the tribal areas of these two districts immediately, and it will be extended to other tribal areas in the state shortly, the CM declared.

After a four-hour discussion with senior ministers and department heads, Krishna announced that his government will make an all-out effort to rehabilitate tribals who have lost their homelands following the carving out of national parks from the forests of Mysore and Chamarajnagar districts.

Another major relief was Krishna's assurance that there would be no forced eviction of tribals from the parks. The government will persuade them to come out, but only after the displaced are rehabilitated, the CM added.