Shillong: National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) vice chairman, Suman Kumar Bery said that to have a development strategy that will leave no one behind, one should worry about 200 million tribals in India.
Bery, who is on a visit to Meghalaya, one of the tribal states in the North East India said this while explaining an objective of his visit to the state where he met the Meghalaya government officials, autonomous district council members and heads of traditional institutions like Hima Mylliem.
Bery visited the office of Hima Mylliem at Mawkhar on Wednesday evening, and was accompanied by the chief executive member of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council, Pynïaid Sing Syiem, and other Executive Members, and he was welcomed by the chief (king) of Hima Mylliem, Ainam Manik Syiem.
Bery said that his visit was his interest that arose for two reasons concerning the tribals in the country.
“In general, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has paid a lot of attention to tribal issues, and tribal communities are a significant part of India’s population. If they are not always well supported by national schemes, so for Niti Aayog as it was being alert to tribal level issues, it is important because if you want a development strategy that will leave no one behind, then you do have to worry about 200 million tribals. That is one concern,” Bery said.
Stating that the North East is tribal including Meghalaya, Bery said that this was his first official visit to any state in the North East and he was interested in the tribal dimension of Meghalaya.
“Second, I had become aware that autonomous district councils in Meghalaya have a role and power and so I expressed my interest in finding out what their powers are, their jurisdiction, their own practices, their own system. Even 15-20 minutes I have learnt a lot about their duties and powers,” the NITI Aayog official said.
Stating that each corner of India is different, Bery said, “We as NITI Aayog are there to serve the states. The Prime Minister said often and believed that India grows when its states grow and so it is not only a question of growth ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’– but to understand what inclusive growth means in each part of the country means visiting. So it is a courtesy visit, not an agenda driven visit but it is an opportunity for me to understand the issues faced in the State so that is why I am here.”
On low rankings of states published by NITI Aayog including Meghalaya, Bery said, “Niti Aayog published many rankings. This government has been very conscious and active in bringing in many national schemes to the far corners of Meghalaya – drinking water, roads and others. There are many achievements. However, those achievements are conditioned by the circumstances of Meghalaya such as, it has a number of villages, those villages are not necessarily easy to reach, those villages have their own schools which have to be brought to the right level or to national standards, institutional deliveries are difficult because of the geographic dimension. So there are a lot of achievements because this government puts in a lot of effort into communicating its plans.
To a question on the strength and weakness of Meghalaya economically, the NITI Aayog official said, “I am not here to judge. I am here to see how Niti Aayog with its own limited resources can be of use, and I have to say one reason, I came at this time because the CM when we met at the G20 summit, has indicated how important he believed Niti Aayog was to the progress of the state.”
