Tribal Council members meet Andaman MP with grievances

Port Blair, Oct 7 (UNI) A delegation of the Tribal Council of Nicobar met Manoranjan Bhakta, the lone MP from Andaman and Nicobar islands, here today to discuss their problems and grievances.

The team discussed on the shortage of doctors in several hospitals in the island, posting of sufficient numbers of teachers in the schools, grant of scholarships to the tribal students and ensuring reservation of seats for Nicobari tribals in the National Institutes of Technology.

''We need more infrastructure for our remote tribal islands,'' Rashid Yusuf, a member of the council at Nancowry told UNI.

Meanwhile, Mr Bhakta assured to take up the matter with the concerned authorities.

''I shall look into the memorandum submitted by the tribal council as an autonomous body, which will empower the tribal leader representatives of the Nicobarese community to be at par with the local governing institutions such as Panchayati Raj Institution (PRI),'' Mr Bhakta said.

The union territory has three districts, North and Middle Andaman, South Andaman and Nicobar while the PRI system exists only in North, Middle and South Andaman, whereas Nicobar has a Tribal Council that does not come under the PRIs.

A three-tier PRI system consisting of Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad exists in the Andaman Group of Islands.

UNI