Fifth Schedule Areas

Provision of Scheduled Areas under Fifth Schedule of Constitution

In order to protect the interests of the Scheduled tribes, the provision of “Fifth Schedule” is enshrined in the Constitution under article 244 (2) which identifies certain areas with predominant tribal population that require special protection and measures for conserving their population and culture and provides an administrative arrangement to implement development programs in those areas. The criteria for declaring any area as a "Scheduled Area "under the Fifth Schedule are:

▪ Preponderance of tribal population,
▪ Compactness and reasonable size of the area,
▪ Available administrative entity such as district, block or taluka.
▪ Economic backwardness of the area as compared to neighboring areas.

Scheduled Areas of Himachal Pradesh

The details of notified FSA(fifth Schedule Areas) in the State of Himachal Pradesh are as under:

•  Schedule V District (Fully &Partly covered) – 3

• Schedule V District (Fully covered) – 2(Lahaul & Spiti, and Kinnaur)

• Schedule V District (Partly covered) – 1(Chamba)

 Fifth Schedule Areas

The Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts, in their entirety, and Pangi and Bharmour

(now tehsil Bharmour and sub-tehsil Holi) Sub-Divisions of Chamba district constitute the Scheduled Areas in the State, fulfilling the minimum criterion of 50% ST population concentration in a CD Block.These are situated in the north and north-east part of the state forming a contiguous belt in the far hinterland behind High Mountain passes with average an altitude of 3281 metre above the mean sea-level. The district of Kinnaur Lahaul-Spiti , Pangi Sub-Division of Chamba district and the Bharmour sub- division of this district form the schedule V area of the state and are characterized by snow glaciers, high altitudes and highly rugged terrain, criss-crossed by fast flowing rivers and their tributaries The most distinguishing mark of the tribal areas in the State is that they are very vast in area but with low population density with the result that per unit cost ofinfrastructure development is very exorbitant..These areas were declared as Schedule Areas by the President of India as per the Schedule Area (Himachal Pradesh) Order, 1975 (CO 102) and Integrated Tribal Development Projects (ITDFs) were created to manage them. These five ITDFs are Kinnaur, Lahaul, Spiti, Pangi and Bharmour. Except Kinnaur which is spread over 3 Community Development Blocks, rest of the ITDFs comprise one block each.

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