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National Commission for the Scheduled Tribes: It’s mandate and achievements – A review of its organization and working

On 4 August 2008, the Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes headed by Ratilal Kalidas, Member of Parliament, adopted the 33rd Report on the Ministry of Tribal Affairs – “National Commission for the Scheduled Tribes – It’s mandate and achievements – A review of its organization and working.” It was presented to the Lok Sabha (Lower House) and the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) on 23 October 2008.

Summary of observations and recommendations-

1. The Parliamentary Committee on the Welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (hereinafter referred to as “The Committee”) observed that functions and duties entrusted to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (hereinafter referred to as “NCST”) under clauses (5), (8) and (9) of Article 338A are very vast and cover different problems and needs of tribal people. The Committee was of the view that the NCST would not be able to accomplish its objective fully and effectively unless the present strength of the Commission is increased. Therefore, the Committee strongly recommended that the existing strength (fivemembers) of the Commission should be increased with a view to assigning each member with a specific job so that each of the members may their full attention to the subjects allocated to them.
2. The Committee expressed concerns on the failure of the Government of India to fill up post of Chairperson, Vice Chairperson and Members on time due. Appointments to these posts were pending for a long time due to which NCST’s functioning was paralysed. The Committee recommended that the process of filling up the post of Chairperson, Vice- Chairperson and Members should be completed well in advance in future so as to maintain continuity of and effective discharge of constitution mandates of the NCST;
3. The Committee wished that it should be apprised of the policy matters on which the Commission had been consulted by the Union and the State Governments under Clause (9) of Article 338A (Mandatory requirement of consultation by Governments on all issues affecting members of the Scheduled Tribes) of the Constitution and whether the same were actually concurred by them.
4. The Committee recommended that in view of the enormous functions assigned to the NCST, the Government should take earnest and credible steps to make NCST more strong and effective. The Committee also recommended that the Government should ask the Department of Personnel & Training (DOP&T) to submit its study report on performance of NCST immediately so that timely corrective action is taken.
5. The Committee expressed concerns on the failure of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to take initiative for up-gradation of four NCST regional offices, augmentation of the existing strength of supporting staff in six regional offices and creation of four more regional offices. The Committee observed that it was naïve to think that merely setting up of a separate Commission without sufficient number of regional offices and staff is good enough to achieve the objective for which it has been constituted. Therefore, the Committee recommended that the Government should set up more regional offices according to the present need, upgrade the four regional offices and augment the existing staff strength of NCST accordingly on a priority basis.
6. The Committee expressed concerns over the fact that despite conferred the powers of a Ministry/Department of the Central Ministry as provided under the Delegation of Financial Power Rules, 1978, the NCST functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the proposals involving financial implications are required to be referred to the Integrated Finance Division of the Ministry through the concerned Administrative Branch of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. The Committee noted that it is sad that the Commission, which has been given statutory status, has to depend upon the Ministry for its day to day functioning and has to route its proposals on financial, administrative and legal matters through the Ministry. The Committee expressed its anguish that the suggestion of the Planning Commission to show the budgetary provisions for NCST under a separate Demand for Grants instead of being a part of the Demand for Grants of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, has not been agreed to by the Ministry of Finance. The Committee expressed apprehensions that NCST would not be able to work fearlessly and independently unless it is given independence in its day to day working by allowing it to decide on its own administrative, financial and legal matters.
7. Having considered all the above facts, the Committee strongly recommended that full administrative and financial powers should be given to NCST so that it is not dependent on the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for every piece of proposal having financial implications. The Committee opined that being an independent statutory body, the NCST has every right to have a separate Budget Head to advance its Demand for Grants in a realistic manner. The Committee asked the Government to appraise it of the reasons adduced by the Ministry of Finance for rejecting the proposal of the Planning Commission for separate Demand for Grants for NCST. The Committee also recommended that a fresh proposal should be sent to Ministry of Finance for creating a separate Demand for Grants for NCST on the lines of other constitutional bodies such as Election Commission, Union Public Service Commission, etc. and asked the Government to appraise it of the outcome within three months.
Having considered all the above facts, the Committee strongly recommended that full administrative and financial powers should be given to NCST so that it is not dependent on the Ministry of Tribal Affairs for every piece of proposal having financial implications. The Committee opined that being an independent statutory body, the NCST has every right to have a separate Budget Head to advance its Demand for Grants in a realistic manner.
8. The Committee expressed concern that the procedure for appointment and regulation of staff of the Secretariat of NCST is complicated and that the secretarial staff at the headquarters of NCST belongs to different cadres such as CSS, CSSS and CSCS and are controlled by different agencies. The Committee particularly noted that officers for Group ‘A’ posts namely, Director, Deputy Director and Assistant Director controlled the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment being the cadre controlling authority, cadre controlling authority, whereas the staff for the posts of Research Officer, Senior Investigator and Investigator is provided by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) being the cadre controlling authority for such posts. The NCST has controlling authority only over secretarial staff of regional offices and appointing authority only over Group ‘D’ staff and some of the Group ‘C’ posts at the headquarter in Delhi. The Committee expressed distress over the multiplicity of cadre controlling authorities and for delay in filling up of vacancies that have existed since 1.12.2004.
9. The Committee observed that out of the sanctioned strength of 125 in Group ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ posts, 43 vacancies in these groups had not been filled up till 1.1.2007 despite NCST’s repeated correspondence with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and NCSC to fill up these posts. Therefore, the Committee recommended that the Government initiate action to create a separate cadre for NCST and its all Regional Offices at the earliest and appraise actions taken in this regard within three months of the presentation of this report to Parliament.
10. The Committee expressed concerns over the long delay caused by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in presenting the first annual report of the NCST in each house of the parliament. The Committee was concerned that there is no time limit fixed for the submission of reports by the Government to the Parliament after it has been presented to the President and opined that unless timely action is taken on the recommendations made in the report, the purpose for which the recommendations were made may lose their relevance. Therefore, the Committee strongly recommended that necessary amendment in clause (6) and (7) of Article 338A of the Constitution may be made so that target to lay reports of NCST within a prescribed time limit in the Parliament is fixed and adhered to.
11. The Committee noted that the recommendations of NCST are of advisory nature, which is sent to the Government for appropriate action and as such, acceptance of the same depends on the sole discretion of the concerned organisation/the Central Government or the State Governments making the very purpose for the existence of a Constitutional body becomes meaningless. In view of this, the Committee recommend that the Constitution should be amended in such a manner that recommendations of the NCST may be taken by concerned authorities as mandatory and it functions with greater judicial powers on the lines of the powers of a civil court so that it is empowered to act as an effective and independent organisation.
12. The Committee strongly recommended that there should not be any laxity in investigation relating to safeguards provided to STs.
13. The Committee recommended that the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi which has commissioned for a study on NCST by DOP&T on 29 December 2005 should be advised to complete its study to complete its study expeditiously so that corrective measures can be taken to enhance the service and service delivery system.
14. The Committee recommended that NCST should send teams to remote tribal areas not only to monitor and evaluate the working of safeguard physically but also to create an increased level of awareness among members of Scheduled Tribes and that working of NCST should also be publicised through Doordarshan and All India Radio.
15. To ensure that funds provided to NGOs/Voluntary Organisations are spent on the welfare of the targeted benificiaries, the Committee cautioned that utmost care should be taken to choose only those NGOs which are genuinely working for the welfare of tribal people. In order to ensure that the Committee recommended that NCST should examine whether the fund granted to NGOs during the last 3 years have actually been incurred for the purpose for which it had been granted and whether it has resulted in improvement in the lives of tribal people.
16. The Committee recommended that it should be apprised whether the measures suggested by the NCST in their report to control the problems of alienation of tribal land and proper rehabilitation of tribals on acquisition of their land and the study “Evaluation Study on Resettlement and Rehabilitation” undertaken by the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad have been taken into consideration while preparing the National Tribal Policy 2007;
17. Expressing concerns over migration of large number of tribals from their villages in search of employment, the Committee recommended that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs should take up this matter with the concerned authorities to ensure that tribals who migrate to work elsewhere for a limited period of time in a year, should be covered under Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes and facility of residential schools for children of migrant tribals who leave their villages for employment.
18. To prevent and protect young tribal girls who migrate to cities from exploitation exploited for want of proper shelter and opportunity, the Committee strongly recommended that proactive action should be taken expeditiously. In this regard, the Committee desired to know whether the report by the Working Group on “Migration of Tribal Girls” has been completed and presented to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
19. Expressing distress over by the sufferings of the tribals by way of displacement on alienation due to development projects for instance in uranium mining in Meghalaya, the Committee recommended that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs should take immediate su-moto action whenever it is reported that tribal people are agitating against displacement and endangerment to their lives.
20. The Committee expressed distress over non-adherence of Planning Commission’s guidelines for adoption of Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) strategy by the Ministries of the Central Government and State Governments asked to know the names of defaulting Ministries and States. In this regard, the Committee recommended that the Planning Commission should that annual budget plans of the Central Ministries are not approved unless TSP/SCP are not provided in their plans as in the case of approving as States plans;
21. Expressing concern over the lack of mechanism to monitor that the funds goes in the programmes for which they are allocated; the Committee recommended that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs should evolve an effective and credible system of mechanism regarding utilisation of funds under TSP. The Committee also recommended that apart from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, NCST should also regularly monitor utilisation of funds under TSP.
22. The Committee expressed concerns over the refusal of loans by Banks and financial institutions to entrepreneurs and businessmen belonging to the Scheduled Tribes and observed that the amount of loan available from the state level Scheduled Tribes Development and Finance Corporations and the National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation is simply insufficient for business in present times. Therefore, the Committee recommended that a proposal should be sent to the Ministry of Finance for examination for issuing necessary guidelines to Banks/ Financial Institutions to lend money to entrepreneurs and businessmen belonging to the Scheduled Tribes.