GUWAHATI, Dec 14: Existing tribal land holding practices in the Northeast may be depriving the people from availing bank loans to bring about agricultural development in the primarily agrarian economies of the States here. Suitable modifications need to be made in the rules to enable the tribals to bring about a transformation in their lives.
A team from the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission (SA&STC), led by its chairman Dileep Singh Bhuria, which is currently visiting Assam and Nagaland, has observed that the individual cultivators should easily get the soft loan assistance from the financial institutions and there should be a legal instrument devised for helping them to mortgage the land where the land under cultivation is in the ownership of the community.
Addressing a press conference here this morning, Bhuria and some other members of the Commission pointed out that existing rules require people availing bank loans to mortgage their land. This is not possible in the Scheduled Areas of the region where the land belongs to the community rather than individual patta holders. That is probably why agriculture in the region has lagged behind the rest of the country. Citing an example of this and its impact on the development of agriculture, Bhuria said that fertilizer usage in Nagaland is a mere 0.8 per cent compared to the 100 percent usage seen in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
SK Kaul, a member of the Commission, said that it is to do away with this anomaly that provisions have been made in Nagaland allowing individual cultivators to mortgage the land they are cultivating. Of course, there are protective guidelines to ensure that the land remains in the control of tribals, he said. Almost 88 per cent of the land in Nagaland is community and individual owned, he added.
Asked about the increasing land alienation among the tribal people, with non-tribals securing benami control of tribal land, Bhuria said that the main problem is the lack of proper implementation of the Sixth Schedule. He said that the Commission would try to find a solution to the problem of non-tribals marrying tribal girls for economic gains.
The SA&STC was constituted on July 18, 2002, under the provisions of Article 339(1) of the Constitution, to report to the President of India on the administration of the Scheduled Areas and Tribal Areas.
An earlier Commission, headed by UN Dhebar, popularly called the Dhebar Commission, had submitted its report way back in 1962 on the state of the tribals in the country. For the next 40 years, the country?s tribal policy was based on the report of that Commission. Now, with increasing unrest among the tribal people and the need to tune development plans according to their special needs, a new Commission has been set up. The Bhuria Commission has been assigned the task of preparing a comprehensive National Tribal Policy and a vision for the future of the tribes of India. This is part of the Prime Minister?s initiative to formulate an India vision plan for the next 20 years. The Commission is supposed to submit its final report to the President by March 31, 2004.
The Bhuria Commission, with 11 members, including the chairman and a member secretary, had visited Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur and Mizoram earlier. This time, it is visiting Assam and Nagaland. The team has visited Haflong, Diphu, Kohima and Dimapur so far, meeting the Nagaland Chief Minister and the Assam Chief Secretary.
Bhuria said the team is visiting tribal areas to assess the ground realities in respect of tribal development projects and programmes for the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes and to interact with the development agencies, tribal leaders, NGOs, social organisations, political parties and a cross section of the tribal people to take stock of the tribal opinion which would form the basis for the National Tribal Policy development. The Commission is also examining the operationalisation of the provisions of the Fifth Schedule and the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, he said.
The Commission has observed that some of the Northeast has initiated the conduct of cadastral land survey, which is essential for the scientific land development and for the gainful use of the land resources. Agriculture, including horticulture has tremendous scope in the hill areas and there is enough land available for the increased area coverage through terraced cultivation. The traditional jhum cultivation, if continued on unscientific lines, will have a devastating effect on the fragile eco-system of the hill areas. Social forestry, horticulture and settled cultivation could be a viable alternative to jhum cultivation and these measures for sustained development will help increase productivity and generate income and employment, it observed.
Bhuria said that there is a need to build infrastructure facilities like roads, transport and tele-communication in the tribal areas to facilitate development in all sectors of the economy, which will have a multiplier effect on the tribal economy resulting in employment and income generation. The Commission will take up with concerned departments the issue of improving infrastructure in the region, he said.
The Commission has also gone into the working of the tribal sub-plan, the funding pattern for the Autonomous Councils, the measures taken for resource mobilisation in the tribal belts, ITDP areas and in the Autonomous Councils. The region as a whole has a weak tax base causing revenue deficit, Bhuria stated. There is a need to augment the tribal sub-plan funds available under Article 275(1) of the Constitution.
The SA&STC expressed concern that drug abuse is a major problem faced in some parts of the region affecting the tribals. The Commission was told that drug abuse is caused by the lack of adequate employment opportunities and has led to the prevalence of HIV and AIDS. The state governments, along with the Centre, need to build awareness and jointly take measures particularly to tackle drug-trafficking in the region being used as a corridor.
On the social and cultural affairs of the tribals, which also come under the purview of the Commission, Member MJL Kamson said that for the past several decades, the tribals in the North East had been witness to sea changes due to the influence of outside cultures. ?For the past decade, however, there is a kind of revivalism,? the Manipur MP and former Union Minister said. Kamson is the only representative from the North East in the 11-member Commission. A team of research experts is supporting the Bhuria Commission to look into the cultural and social aspects of the tribals, he informed.