Bhubaneswar, July 27: The tribal advisory council today decided to ask mine-owners to pay the equivalent amount of royalty for the peripheral development of mine-bearing areas.

SC and ST Development secretary Santosh Sarangi said: “The council approved the draft Odisha (Scheduled Areas) Development of Mine Bearing Area Regulation, 2013, which provides for payment by the mining lessees an amount equal to the royalty being paid which would be utilised for the local people’s development.”

The tribals are complaining that they are not given the due share even though the mine owner are making huge profit by extracting minerals from their area.

The council has also decided to upgrade 38 high schools under the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes development department to higher secondary level and open up anther 10 new Ekalavya Model Residential Schools to improve the standard of tribal education in the state.

About Rs 150 crore will be invested in the opening up of the residential schools to facilitate quality education for the tribal children. Besides, the council decided to create 2,226 trained graduate teachers’ post and 2,000 certificate training teachers for the schools managed by the SC and ST development department.

Presiding over the tribes advisory council meeting at the state secretariat today, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said: “The Odisha Girls Incentive Programme has been initiated in collaboration with the Centre, the UK government’s department for international development and the state government to encourage completion of secondary education by girls belonging to SC and ST categories. All SC and ST day scholar girls studying in classes IX and X will get a stipend of Rs 3,200 per annum.”

To encourage school enrolment and reduce dropout rates of ST students, Naveen said that urban hostel complexes would be opened in Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Rourkela for accommodation of the SC and ST students.