PALAKKAD: The extension of the term of the Attappadi Hill Area Development Society (Ahads) by another three months without any concrete plan of action puts to the fore the uncertainty over the future of the project as well as the 310 employees working under it. It was the LDF Government in the fag end of its term that decided to wind up the Ahads and issued an order to this effect citing the end of the ecorestoration project. The Rs 219 crore greening of the Attappadi hills was funded by the Japanese based Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund (OECD) which was rechristened as the Japanese Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) later. The project launched in 1996 was originally intended for seven years. As the implementation of the project began in 2000, the project should have been over by 2007. But it was extended only to be wound up on the eve of the Assembly elections in March 2011. However, the Election Commission intervened and nullified the order till June 2011. Subsequently, the new UDF Government has been extending it for every three months and now the order stands till March 31, 2012. “We have not received any official communication over the extension. We have submitted a proposal for the implementation of an agricultural package, which is pending with the state government. There were 310 employees working in Ahads. As per the terms of the employment, the work ceases once the project is wound up. However, the government could use their experience and knowledge for undertaking similar works elsewhere. We have also submitted an ecorestoration proposal on the lines of the Attappadi model in Wayanad which is pending with the Government of India,” project director of Ahads Krishna Prasad Sahu said. Asked about the proposal of building houses in all the 187 tribal hamlets of Attappadi, the project director said that this scheme needed a lot of investment. Currently, there is only one employee who is on deputation at Ahads and all the other remaining officials have returned to their parent department. “One cannot constitute an agency for the empowerment of tribals and women in future. Therefore, an agency like Ahads and the workers need to be retained as many restoration works on the saplings need to be done. Moreover, a lot of forestry and soil erosion works need to be undertaken,” Girijan Sevak samithi chairman U C Kunchan said. “By extending the term for three months on a piece meal basis, it does not do good for either Attappadi or the project as such. If the employees, 40 per cent who are local Adivasis, go out of jobs suddenly, it will be a huge catastrophe for the region as a whole. Therefore, they should be absorbed in some way,” junior consultant of Ahads Shibu Suresh said. “What we need is tribal and women empowerment which should be achieved through participatory development approach. The Ahads model should be taken as an alternate development model by the government. Currently, some of the schemes submitted were meant to use the funds of the Hill Area Development Authority (HADA). This was not enough if tribals were to be empowered, “ said another employee who did not want to be named. In 2010, the Centre had sanctioned a sum of Rs 148 crore which had been earmarked as per the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission for the empowerment of five primitive tribes (currently known as “particularly vulnerable group”). The Centre had recommended the names of two agencies, Mahila Samakhya and Ahads for implementing the proposal. But the state government had instead decided to implement it through the Scheduled Tribe welfare department. They also plan to open an office in Kozhikode in this connection, in a district in which there are none of these primitive tribes. However, there were critics to the project as well.” The ecorestoration project has only helped employees get fat salaries and perks.
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