Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda is on a two day visit to Bandipora as part of the public outreach programme. This is for the first time after a long span of time that a Union Minister will stay in Bandipora district and will interact with the people. The people have a lot of expectations with the ministry of tribal affairs as the district has highest tribal population. Several delegations called on the minister and raised several demands. One important demands raised by the educated youngesteers of the district was for establishment of Tribal Research Institute in the district keeping in view the presence of tribal population of the district. Tribal Research Institute (TRI) is the research body of the Ministry of Tribal affairs at state/UT level . It is envisaged that TRIs should focus on their core responsibilities as body of knowledge and research more or less as a think tank for tribal development, preservation of tribal cultural heritage, providing inputs to States for evidence based planning and appropriate legislations, capacity building of tribals and persons / institutions associated with tribal affairs, dissemination of information and creation of awareness. Government of India approved the establishment of TRI in J&K in 2016 however it could not be established so far. Bandipora deserves this institute due to obvious reasons. Bandipora has been neglected by successive regimes since 1947. Bandipora has a century old Forest Training Institute and till date it has not been upgraded. Had this Institute been in some other part of the world, it would have been turned into a School of Excellence or University of international repute. North Kashmir has two campuses each of Agriculture University (Sopore) and North Campus Kashmir University (Baramulla) besides Medical College in Baramulla. Bandipora having a typical geographic location is cut off from the rest of the valley and not easily accessible like other districts of the valley. Despite public outcry Bandipora couldn't get it's due share in previous political setup. The Government recently constituted a Working Group for establishment of TRI headed by Secretary to Government, Tribal Affairs Department who has been tasked for taking key steps for establishment of TRI museums, cultural centres and also putting in place an administrative framework which will go a long way in preserving the tribal art, culture, tradition, languages, literature; and their promotion. TRI is also in process for organising a number of programmes and rolling out tribal fellowship programme. With presence of Union tribal minister in the district and very able and popular officer Dr Shahid Choudhary at the helm of affairs in the UT, people of Bandipora especially tribal population have high expectations with the minister so that the decades old political exploitation can be set aside. People hope the TRI be established in the district so that the purpose of the Institute can be served well since Bandipora is known for three A's -Alim (Education) , Adab (literature) and Aab (Water)
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