Union Minister Jual Oram today called upon the tribal communities not to forget their languages and divert from their culture despite invasion by western culture.
Delivering a lecture on 'Re-examining tribal development in the face of evolving challenges' here, Oram, the union minister for tribal affairs, said "Because of westernization we have forgotten our own unique culture. This is the area where we need to re-examine," he said.
Oram assured funds from his ministry for preservation of tribal languages in Arunachal.
The tribal administration is 'unique' and the tribal community in the country are going ahead with improvement in education and infant mortality rate. However, extra effort is needed to reduce the gap in health and education sectors, he said.
There is no dearth of fund for tribal development and an amount of Rs 8000 crore was sanctioned for his ministry as the Centre is committed to develop 163 tribal districts in the country, the minister said.
While there are no bindings for the ministry to spend in any area for tribal development, but proposals should be sent from the respective state governments.
"The ministry provides funds to the states after due recommendation from the central project appraisal committee in consultation with the state government. The committee also monitors implementation of such projects," Oram said.
Responding to queries, Oram said that the issue of granting citizenship or not to Chakma and Hajong refugees in Arunachal Pradesh is a state subject and the Centre would work as per the recommendation of the state government.
He asked the state government to conduct a study on the issue and accordingly recommend to the Centre.
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