Bhubaneswar: The Odisha unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that a mega convention of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) Cell of the party would be organised in the capital city in February and it will be chaired by party president Amit Shah.
Addressing a press conference here Sunday, Union Tribal Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Jual Oram informed about the upcoming convention, which he claimed, is likely to be attended by around 5,000 tribal leaders and other delegates from across the country.
“The event will be organised from February 2-3. Around 5,000 delegates will come to the city for the convention and will brainstorm on various issues relating to the cell. Many prominent tribal leaders including former Chief Ministers, MPs and MLAs are also likely to attend the meet. Party president Amit Shah will be participating in the event,” Jual said.
The BJP leader said the meetings are likely to be held in different locations including Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, besides a mega rally has been planned in the state capital where, as per Jual, around 1 lakh tribals will take to the city streets to demand their rights.
“Around 1 lakh tribals from across the state will come to attend the rally in the state capital and raise their demands,” Jual said, adding, “The state government has miserably failed to address the issues faced by the tribals here.”
DBT & Scholarships
During the media, Jual blamed the state government for not cooperating with the Centre in rolling out the Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) for stipends to ST students, adding to the woes of the STs by making the validity of their caste certificates only for six months. “Moreover, it is also not submitting the utilisation certificates for ST scholarships,” he alleged.
“If there is any report of shortage of funds to the state for ST scholarships it is because of the failure of the state to submit utilisation certificate to the Centre for the concerned scheme,” he said.
The minister also took a dig at the state government over the issue of women’s reservation and termed the whole episode as ‘political stunt’. He also accused the state of snatching the powers of elected representatives by the Special Development Council constitution. He accepted the ST cell convention could be termed as the party’s “show of strength”.
