HYDERABAD: The Centre has provided funds amounting to Rs 306.73 crore to the State government under various schemes as a stopgap measure for welfare and development of ST community, between the financial years of 2018-19 and 2020-21.
Answering to a question posed by MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Renuka Singh Saruta said these funds were released during the past three years for schemes of Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Scheme (SCA to TSS), development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and grants under Article 275(1) of the Constitution.
She said the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) had conducted a gap analysis of over 1 lakh villages based on Census 2011 and Mission Antyodaya data maintained by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and observed that there are 36,438 villages with at least 50 per cent of tribal population and 500 STs across the country, of which 533 villages fall in Telangana.