The government hopes to provide land to all Scheduled Tribe families by 2026, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
He was speaking after inaugurating the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples celebrations organised by the Scheduled Tribe Development department here on Wednesday.
Besides providing basic infrastructure, the government wanted to equip indigenous people to enhance their knowledge, the Chief Minister said.
Land would be provided to all tribal families in the State as it had been to such families in Thiruvananthapuram district. Land to the tune of 45 acres had been purchased in various districts as per the land bank scheme.
This would be distributed to the tribal families. Nod had been given for purchase of additional 21 acres. Permission of the Union government had been received for distributing 7,693 acres of vested forest land. Of this, nearly 2,000 acres had already been distributed. As many as 3,647 tribal people had benefited from this.
Mr. Vijayan said the government had taken steps to address problems raised during tribal land struggles. It had provided land to all those who had participated in the Muthanga agitation. In areas where the struggles were ongoing, measures were being adopted to resolve them.
As many as 3.5 lakh houses were distributed in the State under the LIFE Mission. As many as 8,394 tribal families were among those who got houses.
Indigenous peoples comprised 1.45% of the State’s population. The government was implementing comprehensive projects targeted at uplift of this section too. Indigenous people experienced maximum digital divide in the world. In the country, tribal people received 30% less Internet services as compared to other sections of the population. If this continued, enhancement of knowledge of tribespeople would suffer. The K-Fon project was being implemented to ensure that no section of the population suffered from digital divide. As part of this, Internet access was being provided to even remote tribal settlements.
Special interventions were being made to address the problems faced by remote tribal settlements. Indigenous peoples were a part of the nation’s history, but attempts were being made to wipe them out from it. It was the duty of the people to prevent and defeat such attempts, the Chief Minister said.
