FM Sitharaman announces scheme to improve socio-economic condition of vulnerable tribes

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday proposed to launch a scheme to improve the socio-economic condition of particularly vulnerable primitive tribal groups.

An amount of Rs 15,000 crore will be made available to implement the Prime Minister Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PM-PVTG) development mission in the next three years under the development action plan for Scheduled Tribes, she said while presenting the Union Budget for 2023-24 in Parliament.

''PM-PVTG development missions are being launched to improve socio-economic conditions of the particularly vulnerable tribal groups,'' the finance minister announced.

This will saturate PVTG families and habitations with basic facilities such as safe housing, clean drinking water and sanitation, improved access to health, education, nutrition, road and telecom connectivity and sustainable livelihood opportunity, she said.

''An amount of Rs 15,000 crore will be made available to implement the mission in the next three years,'' she added.

In the next three years, the Centre will recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for 749 Eklavya Model Residential Schools servicing 3.5 lakh tribal students, Sitharaman said.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs saw an increase in the budgetary allocations by 47.44 per cent with the finance ministry proposing to earmark Rs 12,461.88 crore for the fiscal 2023-24.

The finance ministry had allocated Rs 8,451.92 crore for the current fiscal which was later revised and increased to Rs 7,301 crore.

The actual expenditure of the tribal affairs ministry in 2021-22 came at Rs 6,173.97 crore.

The Tribal Affairs Ministry saw a significant increase in budgetary allocations for the Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) with the finance ministry proposing to provide Rs 5,943 crore for implementation of the programme in 2023-24.

In the last Union Budget, the finance ministry had allocated Rs 2000 crore for implementation of the EMRS programme in the current fiscal.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)