Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, along with Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan, laid foundation stone for the Central Tribal University to be built with a cost of Rs 834 crore coming up in an extent of 561.88 acres.
Addressing a huge public meeting at Chinamedapalli village on Friday, the Chief Minister said that the University will provide better educational facilities to tribal youth to lift their living standards and help them shine on national and international platforms.
“Your minds are pure and you have kept me in your hearts. I will continue to strive for your welfare,” he said, adding that the Government has so far disbursed Rs.16,805crore benefiting 58, 39,000 tribal families through DBT and non-DBT welfare schemes.
The Chief Minister thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for granting the Tribal University to the State and said it will help tribal students of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Tribal University is presently functioning temporarily from Vizianagaram utilising Andhra University facilities.
The proposed Tribal University will come up at Marrivalasa and Chinamedapalli villages in the adjoining Dattirajeru and Mentada Mandals in Saluru constituency.
Tribals, neglected for decades, are still backward in most respects and the Government has been striving to improve their living standards, he said and listed out the steps taken for their social and economic empowerment.
Government has been fulfilling the election promises made to tribals which include setting up of Tribal Advisory Committee and the five-member ST Commission.
“We have spent Rs 410 crore on subsidies so far benefiting 4,58,000 tribal families for fulfilling the promise of 200 units of free power supply every month in tribal tandas,” he said.
The government has converted 165 tribal tandas having more than 500 people into panchayats and created Alluri Sitaramaraju and Parvatipuram Manym districts for the benefit of tribals, besides enacting law to reserve 50 per cent of the nominated posts and contracts for SC, ST, BC and minority communities.
Apart from medical colleges being built in tribal areas at Narsipatnam, Paderu and Parvathipuram, a tribal engineering college is also coming up at Kurupam to cater to the educational needs of the tribal youth.
