In a bid to provide better education facilities to the children of the Maoist affected districts, the Centre has decided to set up more residential schools in those areas, the officials said here on Monday.
A day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) situation with chief Ministers of the affected states on September 26, the officials further said with the setting up better schooling facilities, the tribal children will be dissuaded from the Maoist ideology.
They also said that a total of 234 EMRSs (Eklavya Model Residential Schools) have been sanctioned for LWE affected districts, of these 119 have been functional and the Union Home Minister asked Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda, who was also present in the review meeting, to expedite the setting up of remaining EMRS on a priority basis.
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The Chief Secretaries of the Maoist affected states were also directed to identify and provide land for the designated schools in the affected districts at the earliest.
A flagship programme of the Union Ministry for Tribal affairs, the EMRS was introduced in the year 1997-98. These residential schools are established in the areas of the States and Union Territories which has 50 per cent ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons.
The Centre gives one time Rs 30 lakh grant for establishing the school, thereafter up to Rs 30 lakh per school annually. The additional cost is borne by state governments.
During the review meeting on Sunday, Shah also said that Union Home Ministry has taken several developmental initiatives which include sanction of 17,600 km of road out of which 9,343 km have already been constructed under Road Requirement Plan I and Road Connectivity Plan in LWE areas while to improve the telecom connectivity in these areas, a total of 2,343 new Mobile Towers have been installed and 2,542 additional towers will be installed in next 18 months.
For financial inclusion of the people in LWE affected districts, 1,789 Post Offices, 1,236 Bank Branches, 1,077 ATMs and 14,230 Banking Correspondents have been opened and 3,114 Post Offices will be opened in the next one year.