In a step to push tribal development initiatives with active corporate help, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has invited 120 corporate companies for a meeting in Mumbai to seek their financial support for tribal development through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds.
Fadnavis and State Tribal Development Minister Vishnu Savara have invited top companies such as Reliance Industries, Tata Group, Wipro, Infosys and Raymond for a meeting at the Sahyadri guest house at Malabar Hill on December 3.
“We are happy that 60 of them have confirmed their participation. The Tribal Development department routinely disburses large funds, but we have found gaps in the implementation of those schemes, so we decided to seek corporate help. This will directly benefit over two lakh tribal children in 529 government ashram schools,” Savara told The Hindu over phone from Palghar.Savara, a six-time MLA from Palghar district, has found support from Fadnavis.
“The Chief Minister has been taking personal interest in tribal development. This meeting is part of his efforts to give impetus to these activities, which had been neglected so far,” Savara said.
Tata Group’s assistance in setting up a central kitchen for the schools earlier this year was the beginning of this initiative, he added.
The Tribal Development department has adopted the Akshaypatra Foundation model kitchen. A fully automated central kitchen has been set up in Mundegaon in Nashik district through the Tata Trusts CSR fund.
The feedback from the project indicates that the central kitchen has drastically reduced the expenditure on food, officials said. The Fadnavis government now wants to replicate this model in other parts of the State. Under the Companies Act, it is mandatory for corporate entities with net worth of Rs 500 crore or a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or net profit of more than Rs 5 crore to spend at least 2 per cent of its average net profit on CSR activities for three immediately preceding years.
Though in 2014-15, very few corporate companies such as Reliance Industries, Infosys, ITC managed to fulfil the mandatory condition of at least 2 per cent of social sector funding, the CSR engagement of corporates is expected to rise in this financial year.
In a recent meeting, the Tribal Development department has demarcated priority areas where corporates could extend their support.
The government wants companies to support creation of basic infrastructure for school development such as toilets, drinking water facilities, computer and language labs, student development, capacity building of teachers, school management, skill development, and vocational training, improvement of ashram school kitchens, and human resource.
The one-year-old Fadnavis government has taken two key decisions. It is working to provide quality education and help all-round development of tribal children.
It has decided to enrol 25,000 tribal students in 100 renowned educational institutions in the State.
