With works yet to begin for establishing a government primary school at Vilankombai tribal settlement here, Tamil Nadu Tribal People Association has urged the State to issue a government order (GO) for establishing the school until which the forest department building in the hamlet can be used for taking classes.
The settlement with 38 families is located inside the buffer zone of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve and has no school, except for a special training centre run under the National Child Labour Project.
School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan had on September 11, 2020, announced the establishment of a school at Vilankombai and the forest department had demarcated 50 cents of forest land for the school. However, a resolution needs to be passed in the gram sabha meeting in the Kongarpalayam Panchayat which did not happen so far.
S. Mohan Kumar, District Coordinator, Tamil Nadu Tribal People Association, told The Hindu that a resolution should be passed in the Vilankombai village gram sabha, established under Section 2(g) of Recognition of Forest Rights Act, 2006 and not in the gram sabha meeting by Kongarpalayam panchayat.
The gram sabha mentioned in the act was the village assembly consisted of all adult members of the village, he said. Under Section 3(2) of the Act, less than one hectare of forest land could be diverted for development projects for which the gram sabha needed to adopt a resolution.
The user agency, which was the School Education department here, should submit the proposal along with the resolution to the Range Forest Officer (RFO) who would inspect the site and recommend to the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) for executing the work.
The DFO would send his approval to the RFO and the forest land would be demarcated for diversion and would be handed over to the user agency. “The entire process should be completed in four weeks,” he said.
Mr. Mohan Kumar wanted a GO for establishing the school and using the building in the village for conducting classes until the new building was established.