People's Democracy

DETERMINED to make the most out of every inch of the state’s landmass for well-being and self-reliance of the poor people of Tripura, the Left Front government has adopted a 10-year plan of forestry and afforestation. The plan is in continuation with the Left Front’s all-out endeavour to attain a self-reliant, alternative welfare economy in this backward state, in sharp contrast with the centre’s ominous move to wash its hands off every obligation to invest in the welfare of the country’s huge poor and backward population.

On March 31, the state cabinet took a number of pro-people decisions, including the adoption of the 10-year forestry and afforestation plan. Briefing newsmen about the cabinet decisions at a press conference at the Civil Secretariat in the evening, Tripura’s information minister Jitendra Chowdhury said the state cabinet had cleared a 10-year integrated plan for development of the state’s forest resources, in consonance with the 10-year plans adopted earlier for attainment of the self-sufficiency in food production, animal resources, horticulture, etc, by the year 2010. All these plans lay utmost emphasis on employment generation by the state on its own. The main aim of the latest 10-year plan is to protect the state’s bio-diversity and ecological balance, to reforest the denuded areas, to tone up the economy of the poor tribal and non-tribal people inhabiting the forest areas, to step up the growth of forest produce as well as fodder production, to conserve wild life, and to promote social forestry, forest-based tourism and fresh afforestation.

Jitendra Chowdhury also informed the press that the plan aims at afforestation of 2.33 lakh hectares of the state’s landmass over the next 10 years with the participation of the public, private and joint sector enterprises. Its aims include the production of valuable varieties of wood, bamboo and cane and medicinal plants. The plan is estimated to create 2.48 crore mandays of employment, benefiting 68,950 poor families, and its implementation will cost the exchequer Rs 472.78 crore.

In another employment-oriented decision, the state cabinet cleared the introduction of regular pay scales for all the fixed-pay junior engineers employed by the state government to date. The information minister said steps had been taken to provide jobs to some more unemployed engineers in the next few months.

The cabinet also reviewed the drought situation in Tripura for which state administration had already been alerted. Though it did rain over the past few days, the departments of revenue, rural development, agriculture and water resources were put, and are still, in a battle-ready position to face any eventuality. (INN)