NEW DELHI: The newly-built National Tribal Research Institute (NTRI) will spearhead all efforts at drawing up policies for the Centre besides being the nodal agency for all issues related to India’s indigenous people, said Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Speaking at the inaugural programme of the NTRI on Tuesday, which has been built at a cost of Rs 10 crore, Shah sought to hold the previous Congress responsible for doing ‘little’ for the country’s indigenous people. He acknowledged the Modi government for according “glory” to the tribal people in the Northeast and central India.
Pointing out that the NTRI was an “important milestone”, the home minister gave out some information to prove his point that the Modi government has done more for tribal welfare than all previous governments.
“Not only has the Centre withdrawn the Armed Forces Special Forces Act (AFSPA) from most of the areas of the northeast, the overall security situation in the region and in Left wing extremism-affected districts in central India has improved in the last eight years,” Shah said.
During the regime of Congress-led UPA, there were around 8,700 incidents reported, while the figures have dropped significantly now at 1,700, said the home minister, adding that during the same period 304 and 87 security personnel, respectively, were killed in the region.
In the districts affected by Leftwing extremism, Shah said, Naxal violence accounted for 2,258 incidents when the UPA was in power as compared to 509 in 2021. “The Modi government has also focused on development parameters such as increasing number of toilets, Aayushman cards, increasing budgetary allocation of the Ekalavya Schools and bearing the cost for an individual student which has gone up from Rs 42,000 to Rs 109,000 per student annually,” he said.