Lok Sabha Debates
Request To Update Scheduled Area, Maharashtra Order, 1985 And Inclusion Of ... on 22 March, 2021
Seventeenth Loksabha > Title: Request to update Scheduled Area, Maharashtra Order, 1985 and inclusion of eligible villages and gram panchayat as scheduled area.
DR. HEENA VIJAYKUMAR GAVIT (NANDURBAR): I would like to draw the attention of this House to a very important issue related to the tribes of Maharashtra. The President of India issued the Scheduled Area Maharashtra Order, 1985, under the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution which provides for specification of scheduled areas in relation to the State after consultation with the State Government concerned. Parliament in 1996 had enacted the Panchayat Extension of Scheduled Area (PESA) Act to extend the Panchayati Raj system to the areas under the Fifth Schedule. However, the 1985 Order has not been updated for the last 36 years as a result of which, several newly formed villages in gram panchayats have not been included under the scheduled area. Therefore, they are not governed by the PESA Act which results in denial of several benefits to the substantial tribal population residing in these areas. I request the Government to immediately issue orders to the State of Maharashtra to send the proposal for eligible villages and gram panchayat and kindly pass necessary orders to update the 1985 Order at the earliest for inclusion of these villages in gram panchayats as scheduled areas.
19.32 hrs (Shrimati Rama Devi in the Chair)