Tura : With the objective to take forward the Green Economy concept of the State Government in a more aggressive manner, a state-wide Mass Bamboo Plantation was launched by Agriculture & Horticulture departments with the involvement of all the Village Employment Councils (VECs) in all the C&RD blocks and the district administrations across the State on Monday.
Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma kicked off the bamboo plantation at Betasing C&RD block in South West Garo Hills and also planted bamboo saplings in the presence of Parliamentary Secretary in-charge Home, etc W.D. Sangma, local MDCs Nripendra Koch and Stevie M. Marak, Director, Agriculture Dorothy Syiemiong, Deputy Commissioner, South West Garo Hills, C.V.D.Diengdoh, Superintendent of Police, Ramesh Singh, officials of Agriculture and Horticulture departments and other district officials on Monday morning. He also made a token distribution of bamboo saplings to selected farmers on the occasion. Including bamboo varieties like Dendrocalamus Giganteus and Dendrocalamus Asper.
From Betasing, the Chief Minister proceeded to Gongglanggre village under Selsella C&RD Block in West Garo Hills district and joined in the bamboo plantation there along with former MLA & Co-Chairman of State-level Grievance Redressal Committee Mukul Das, Chairman of Tura Municipal Board Donbosh N. Sangma, Deputy Chairman, State Planning Board G. Arengh, local MDCs and departmental officials.
In his address, the Chief Minister said this mass bamboo plantation is not a new scheme and that it is more of a programme of adoption of new approach in a convergence mode as the scheme had been launched last year under Horticulture Mission to promote Agar & Bamboo plantation aimed at promoting sustainable livelihood as well as sustainable ecology. Stating that bamboo has always been the way of life of the tribal people and that it is not something new, the Chief Minister however said the government has given special thrust on bamboo to fill the demand and supply gap and create opportunities “in our own backyard”. Despite being an agrarian country we are still importing bamboo for various purposes like paper mills and making incense sticks, besides other things, he said.
Highlighting the importance of bamboo, the number of activities associated with it and how it can be a raw material for various industries, the Chief Minister said that amazing things can happen when our natural resources are utilized in a scientific approach and spoke of the proposal to create additional value of bamboo by producing bio-fuel from this wonder plant. Expressing alarm over the abnormal climatic condition, erratic and scanty rainfall in the past few weeks, the Chief Minister said that there is a need to recharge our catchment areas through plantation of Bamboo and remunerative plants like Agar, Ramie, Black pepper and others. He urged upon the Horticulture and Agriculture departments to create programmes that are more remunerative to farmers and help in recreating biodiversity as well and also to look at the barren lands in the area for plantation of pulses. “There is a need to create resilient livelihood opportunities so that our people do not suffer during the times of crisis brought by climatic change”, he added.
As part of the Mission Green, he said the bamboo plantation should also be done along the roads and that maintenance of different stretches of the roads should be given to communities, schools, clubs, etc, “because only when communities are involved, the forests that we create can be sustained”, he added.
Stating that there are over five lakh job card holders in the State under MGNREGS, the Chief Minister was of the view that if all these families were involved in the plantation they could be able to create an aggregated impact. He also announced additional funds from the Government to those VECs who make schemes for livelihood so as to generate competition among the villages and to build stronger partnership with the communities for proper use of natural resources. He urged upon all the communities and stakeholders to extend their complete support and cooperation to the endeavor of Government to make all villages clean and green and the most liveable ones.
On queries about the weightage being given by the Government on construction of roads via Ampati, Dalu, Ranikor etc, the Chief Minister said that these roads once developed would become trans-nation business corridor for the entire North East region.
In South West Garo Hills 75,000 bamboo saplings and in Selsella block 15,200 saplings were distributed for plantation as part of this mass bamboo plantation programme.
At Samanda block in East Garo Hills, the inaugural programme for mass bamboo plantation on Shillong-Nongstoin-Tura road was attended by Parliamentary Secretary in-charge PHE, Noverfield Marak in the presence of departmental and other district officials, who also distributed saplings to the eight VECs from the block. (MIPR)
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