Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said that no violent incidents took place during protests against National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state because people in Chhattisgarh believe in peace. “We believe in Indian constitution. We are united. Social, economic and cultural developments are happening because of the pro people oriented policies of the state government”, said Bhupesh Baghel.

The Congress government in the state has succeeded to wipe the tears of tribals, who were exploited for fifteen years in the previous government and after the congress government came to power it succeeded to win the trust of farmers and tribal, he said.

Baghel informed that around 1800 artists from 25 states, 3 union territories and 6 foreign countries are participating in the tribal dance festival.

The Chief Minister took a pledge to bring down poverty rate from national average of 22 per cent in Dantewada district where there are around 60 per cent people living below poverty line. There are 40 per cent people living below poverty line in Chhattisgarh while around 22 per cent of the population lives below the national poverty line in the country, he added.

Tribals have their ethnic culture despite being away from the country’s mainstream and development. Bhupesh Baghel said tribal areas have a tradition of folk songs, dialects, folk dances and different types of musical instruments.

He said that the main objective behind organising the National Tribal Dance Festival is to preserve the waning tribal culture of not only Chhattisgarh but also of different tribals living across the world. The Chief Minister said that the irony with tribal areas is that these areas have poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, unemployment and lower health index.

According to estimates of Reserve Bank of India and World Bank, percentage of BPL families in Bastar district ranges between 50 to 60 per cent whereas the average percentage of BPL families in India is 22 per cent. In the past decade, number of families living below poverty line has come down but in tribal areas the changes are unfortunately not much visible.He said it is very unfortunate that basic problem of tribal area are still persisting even after spending crores of rupees in the name of infrastructure development in tribal areas in last 15 years. The biggest challenge for the state government now is to minimize the effect of poverty in tribal areas and make lives of tribal prosperous.

“We have taken the pledge that under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and we will work towards bringing prosperity in tribal regions. For the purpose, we chose Dantewada district which was badly affected by Naxalism and where economic and social index are at the lowest,” said Baghel.

Total population of Dantewada is 2,83,479 and the number of families living in Dantewada is 48574. Out of this, over 57 per cent families i.e. 28000 families live below poverty line. We have set a target of bringing the number of BPL families in Dantewada to less than the national average of 22 per cent in the next five years through various poverty eradication programmes.

The state government has prepared an action plan for bringing down the number of BPL families below national average in Dantewada district. The plan will be implemented from the third and fourth week of January 2020. Under the action plan, increasing the sustainable income of over 13000 families through mid day meal scheme with the help of self help groups, suposhan abhiyaan, collection of minor forest produce, processing and marketing, horticulture and providing necessary items for residential schools. In addition to this, a separate action plan will be prepared to increase the source of income for total 9834 families having patta land under Forest

Right Act.

On the basis of the experience of Dantewada, two more districts having maximum number of BPL families will be earmarked. The state government will ensure implementation of the action plan in war footing and provide funds for the same, he added.