Republic Day tribal guests call on Kyndiah

New Delhi, Jan 31 (UNI) Tribal guests invited to participate in the Republic Day celebrations called on Tribal Affairs Minister P R Kyndiah here today and presented colourful dances before him.

As many as 60 tribals, one male and one female from each state, representing 37 Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 16 Primitive Tribal Groups (PTG) were present on the occasion.

Mr Kyndiah took them to various places in Delhi for sightseeing.

The tribals travelled in Metro Rail and visited Vrindavan, Mathura and Agra. The objective for arranging such visits was to provide opportunities to the tribals to know each other and to have glimpses of cultural heritage of other parts of the country.

Felicitating the tribal guests on the occasion, Mr Kyndiah said the tribals represent a vibrant group of our society and their welfare has a very high priority on the agenda of the government.

Various programmes and schemes have been initiated by the government and the focus is to provide them all possible opportunities for better education, health care and other development, he said.

He said that the recently notified Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act would go a long way to provide land rights to the tribals. He called for creating mass awareness about various schemes and programmes so that target groups could benefit from the schemes.

UNI/BKS AM VC1745