Tribal Affairs ministry jeopardises tribals

The ministry is cancelling students' right to seek full reimbursement of fees paid to private institutes, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Jan 14, 2007, 20:49:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A Tribal Affairs ministry circular not allowing Schedule Tribe (ST) students to seek full reimbursement of fees paid to the private institutes has irked the Planning Commission, resulting in intervention being sought from the Prime Minister’s Office.

The ministry, a few months ago, issued a circular to all state governments regarding the Centre’s post-matric scholarship scheme for tribal students. The ministry made it clear that tribal students can seek reimbursement paid to private institutes equivalent to fees paid for the same course in a government institution.

It meant that the refund, for example for an engineering course for a tribal student, would be same irrespective of whether the student is in private or government institute.

All was fine with the change till Planning Commission took exception to the decision. The commission is of the view that the ministry cannot take the decision unilaterally as a similar scheme for Scheduled Caste (SC) students is run by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Under the post matric scholarship scheme for SC students, entire fees is refunded, irrespective of whether the student is in government or private institute. Both the schemes are applicable for economically weaker section, as only those whose parents annual income is less than Rs one lakh are eligible to avail the scheme.

A fall out of the Tribal Affairs ministry decision is that now there is a disparity between a similar affirmative action scheme for SC and ST students by the government, felt a commission official. The commission has apparently also objected to the ministry not seeking an in principle approval from it before issuing the circular.

In a response to the Principal Advisor in the commission Chandra Pal’s objections, Meena Gupta, secretary Tribal Affairs ministry, explained that the amendment was necessary as public money was going into the private hands.

It was also pointed out the full reimbursement was being taken as an incentive to take admission in private institutes. She was not available for comments when contacted by HT.

Other ministry officials, however, said that tribal students would not suffer as most of the students covered under the scheme are in government run institutes.

Now, the commission has asked Prime Minister’s Office to intervene and restore parity. Earlier this week Planning Commission member Balachandra Mungerkar dashed off a letter to Tribal Affairs Minister PR Kyndiah urging him to reverse the decision. No decision on reversal has been taken, a ministry official said on Friday.

Email Chetan Chauhan: chetan @hindustantimes.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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