By Sujit Chakraborty
Agartala/Guwahati, Jan 19 (IANS) A parliamentary panel is on a three-day visit of the northeastern states to study the functioning of the 10 tribal autonomous district councils (TADC) in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
Under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitutions, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram have three TADCs each, while Tripura has one.
The purpose of the panel's visit is to elaborate upon the Constitution (125th Amendment) Bill, 2019 to empower these TADCs.
The panel, led-by Congress Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma, would also gather opinions of leaders of various parties, specially the tribal ones, elected representatives of the TADCs, officials and experts, an official of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) told IANS.
According to the official, the TADCs and the tribal parties have been demanding direct and more central funding and allocation of more departments for socio-economic development of tribals.
Earlier in December, the panel's visit was cancelled due to widespread violent protest across the region against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).
The Constitution (125th Amendment) Bill, introduced in the Rajya Sabha on February 6, 2019, is being studied of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs. The committee may submit its report during the second half of the Budget Session, beginning on January 31.
The Sixth Schedule provides for administration of the tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura to safeguard the rights and economic sovereignty of tribals.
The Bill also provides for increasing financial and executive powers of TADCs. The Bill proposes more powers to elected village councils under the TADCs to prepare plans for agriculture, land management, industries and social forestry development.
The Bill mandates the Finance Commission to recommend devolution of financial resources to autonomous bodies, currently dependent on central and state grants. It also proposes to reserve one-third of seats for women.
After violent protests, the Centre exempted the TADC-governed areas like the inner line permit-administered areas from the CAA purview.
The ILP, which has been in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram, on December was also 11 promulgated in Manipur. The Meghalaya Assembly on December 19 had in an unanimous resolution requested the Centre to promulgate the ILP.
The CAA seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi people, who fled religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and entered India on or before December 31, 2014.
In a significant move, the Tripura Assembly on Friday passed a resolution increasing the number of TTAADC seats from 30 to 50. The TTAADC has jurisdiction over two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area, home to over 12,16,000 people, 90 per cent of whom are tribals.