Tribal Development Minister Ganpat VasavaGujarat Tribal Development Minister Ganpat Vasava on Tuesday said the Gujarat government would increase the annual income limit for people of the tribal community to avail financial assistance for education from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh. The significant announcement was made in the Gujarat Assembly in response to various demands and representations made by members of the Opposition Congress and others with regard to the budgetary demands of the Tribal development department (TDD).
Referring to Congress MLA Anil Joshiyara’s demand to raise the income limit for tribal people to avail of the financial assistance in education, Vasava said in the Assembly, “We are thankful to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel for agreeing to our demand. After meeting them, it has been decided to increase the income limit from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh.”
Speaking of the budgetary demands, senior Congress MLA from Bhiloda constituency Anil Joshiyara had raised a number of issues such as diversion of funds meant for tribal people to other schemes that are not exclusively for tribal people, forest land rights for tribal people, and people obtaining fake community certificates.
Pacifying the 1 crore strong STs
After declaring 10% reservation for non-reserved communities, this move looks like an attempt by the BJP government to pacify the tribal community in Gujarat, which numbers around 1 crore. Also, it appears that it was difficult for the government to defend an income limit as low as Rs 2.5 lakh for the community when compared with other communities that are have reservation. Sources said there was also huge pressure from the non-political class of the tribal community against the income limit. Eventually the government gave in. But it remains to be seen how quickly the announcement gets implemented.
Joshiyara then demanded that the annual income limit for tribal people to avail scholarship assistance of Rs 2.5 lakh should either be raised or scrapped completely. “Due to this income limit, a number of tribal community people have to pay fees (from their own pockets) for education,” Joshiyara said, while adding that similar income limit for people of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) is Rs 6 lakh and Rs 8 lakh respectively.
Another Congress MLA from Garbada constituency, Chandrikaben Bariya, also made a similar demand to waive the condition of annual income limit for granting educational benefits to tribal people.
As per the freeship scheme of the state government, people from backward communities get educational assistance in the form of waiver of fees and issuance of scholarship if they fall under the prescribed annual income limit. This financial assistance varies for different streams of education such as medical, engineering, legal and so on.
Later, while speaking with The Indian Express, Vasava said, “A number of MLAs were demanding that the income limit (for tribal people) be raised. So, we demanded it from the government. The decision in this regard was taken around two months back. Implementation of the decision will be done now.”
According to Vasava, the increase in income limit will be a big assistance for the tribal community, as in medical education, the total assistance could reach up to Rs 8-9 lakh.
