Tribals are Rightful Owners of Forest Produce: Arjun Munda at Workshop on Van Dhan Scheme

New Delhi, June 28: The Ministry of Tribal Affairs organized a one-day workshop in New Delhi yesterday to flag the 100 days’ plan for implementation of the Van Dhan Scheme. The workshop was organized by the Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) of the Ministry. 

 

The workshop was inaugurated and chaired by Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda. The workshop aimed at training of implementing teams of Van Dhan Yojana. The Minister appreciated the efforts of TRIFED team for the successful launch and acknowledged that the team’s efforts have been channelized in the right direction and were contributing significantly to the cause of tribal livelihood and income enhancement. 

 

Arjun Munda emphasized that the Tribal groups are the rightful owners of the Minor Forest Produce (MFP) and the ministry is only helping them claim their rightful value for the forest produce. Emphasizing on the importance of networking and collaborating with stakeholders from public and private sectors to ensure maximum outreach of the scheme, Munda advised the team to work on the implementation roadmap with utmost accountability and as per timelines. 

 

Van Dhan Karyakram is a 100 days programme of the Ministry which would establish 50,000 ‘Van Dhan Vikas Kendras’ in the tribal areas of the country to ensure livelihood generation, income enhancement and empowerment of tribals. The scheme will have a coverage of 27 states and 307 predominant tribal districts across India. The Van Dhan Karyakram will cover 50 non-nationalized MFP items with minimum support price to provide fair and remunerative returns to the tribals. The scheme aims to set up and operationalize 3000 Van Vikas Kendras in 2019-20 of which 600 Kendras will be eastablished during the 100-day plan