Sir,

When you are meeting a group of Agriculture Experts for pre-budget consultations and the undersigned being one of the invitees and based on our nearly 30 years successful working in the Tribal Development, I give below my request for your kind consideration for special focus on the Tribal Development in the coming budget.

Vast proportions of our rural people are poor. Among the rural people, the tribal people are the poorest. One of the main reasons for the poverty among tribals is the non-availability of irrigation facilities. This is inspite of the fact that in all our tribal regions there is ample water, but not harvested and made use for the poor tribals.

It is therefore, necessary, that special funds need to be allocated for the Tribal Development vis-à-vis Small Scale Water Resources Development for the tribal regions. This allocation should be in addition to the normal provision under the Tribal Sub Plan.

The irrigation facilities combined with the development of Forestry both on the Government forest lands and the private lands in the tribal regions may generate enormous wealth which would benefit not only the tribal people, but also to the entire nation as the immense potential of water resources and the forestry, including on private wasteland are not at all capitalized in our tribal regions.

It is also requested that the proven NGOs with an excellent track record need to be encouraged by providing special funds for the Rural and Tribal Development, which would ensure better utilization of the funds and guaranteed results, benefiting the rural and tribal people.

It would also be very useful if the contributions / donations for the economic development of the tribals are given 100 % Income Tax rebate, under the strict scrutiny and monitoring, so that such contributions / donations are utilized strictly for the tribal people.