The Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department will speed up the process of issuing community certificates to applicants from tribal communities, said Minister N. Kayalvizhi Selvaraj in Coimbatore on Friday.
The Tribal Welfare Minister said Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had directed the Department to expedite the process of issuing community certificates to applicants from tribal communities.
“The Department will process such applications as soon as possible. The delay is often caused due to various verifications. If either of the parents of the applicant has the community certificate, the processing is easy. It takes time to process the certificate when both parents do not have the document. The Department will still expedite the processing and issuing of certificates,” she said. The Minister visited M. Shangavi, a 19-year-old girl from the Malasar tribal community from Pichanur near Coimbatore, who scored 202 marks in NEET.
Ms. Shangavi got her community certificate in May 2020, after the intervention of the then Collector, after having struggled for two years.
Ms. Selvaraj said applications for community certificates could now be made online too.
She told journalists that the Chief Minister called Ms. Shangavi over the phone and congratulated her two days ago.
She visited the tribal settlement on Saturday to congratulate the medical aspirant, identify the issues of the people and hear their grievances.
“All of us know how society will progress when women get educated, as said by Thanthai Periyar. She [Ms. Shangavi] dreams of becoming a doctor, and has struggled for two years and has now scored 202 marks in NEET. I came here in person to appreciate and encourage her. She should be a role model for other tribal students. I have assured all assistance from the Department and in my personal capacity to her. Since I felt that a laptop would be useful for her studies, we have given her one,” she said.
The Minister said students from tribal communities often lagged behind in education. Proper education can bring progress in their lives and they can become self-reliant, she said.
Ms. Selvaraj said only after visiting the place on Friday did she come to know that many houses did not have electricity connection. Instructions have been given to the Collector to take necessary steps to provide electricity connections and voter IDs to the residents, she said.
